The Crimson Maiden
by Leebot
Summary: Mai Otome AU. The scars of Fuuka run deep. Hundreds of years later, lives are being twisted to unknown ends. Bonds will form, bonds will break, and the specter of history may overcome all. Pairings include Shiznat, Harukino, and others.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** This idea popped into my head while flying to my parents' house for Thanksgiving today, and I just had to embrace the inspiration as I had it. Don't worry, I still intend to work on my other projects. I just wanted to at least get the prologue for this out, mostly to tease you all. ;)

The setting for this is an AU, in a parallel Garderobe. The nature of the world, Garderobe, and Otome are vastly different than in Mai-Otome though, so don't go making too many assumptions. I've also shuffled around the ages of some characters for narrative need.

* * *

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M (for strong sexual content)

**Prologue**

* * *

Erstin screamed out and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the blast of flame. She was bound completely immobile by the Child's web, and she was too exhausted to break out of it, having used up all of her energy and lost her own Child just fending off the Maiden alone. When the Maiden had summoned her own Child, Erstin knew that all was lost. She still tried, putting up a good struggle, but she was simply outmatched, soon finding herself enveloped in the spider's web and at the Maiden's mercy.

It would be a stretch to say that the Maiden was merciful, though. She held nothing back in her final attack: a wave of flame which scorched across Erstin's body, disintegrating the remnants of her Robe and electrifying her skin with the knowledge of just how painful this would have been had their magic not been limited by the enchantment on the arena. When it was over, she was left hanging naked in the web, unable to even move her arms to cover herself and maintain the barest sliver of modesty.

In contrast, the Crimson Maiden stood across from Erstin almost entirely undamaged. It had been Erstin's hope to at least be able to do enough damage to the Maiden's Robe to pierce her glamour and reveal her true identity underneath the disguise she wore in her duels, but she had failed at even that. At least she wasn't the first to fail at this; so far not a single student had been able to uncover the Maiden's identity, allowing her legend to grow.

Adding to the legend was just how detailed the Crimson Maiden disguise was. She wore a stunning red outfit, consisting of a tight tube top which drew the eye to her breasts and their nearly perfect shape, and then a bit lower to her exposed midriff. The eye was then pulled down to the miniskirt wrapped around her waist, which taunted the viewer with the constant possibility of seeing what lay underneath as she moved. However, the skirt itself seemed to be enchanted to always cover just enough, whatever vantage point one might take or whatever action the Maiden might be engaged it. It was easily the most frustrating garment that Erstin had ever seen.

Finishing off the Maiden's crimson theme was her bright red hair. It was cut long, flowing behind her back and seeming to dance with a life of its own. The Maiden was the personification of burning passion, both in herself and in all who beheld her. The ultimate irony, though, was the taunt her name implied. Although she put her body on the line in every battle, she had never lost and been forced to surrender it. Despite all she'd done to her defeated opponents, she remained a maiden herself.

It was this knowledge of what the Maiden liked to do to her opponents that provided the sole saving grace to the situation Erstin found herself in. She could feel her nipples already hardening at the thought, and she was momentarily embarrassed at the thought that her opponent might see her excitement. She didn't want the Maiden to think she'd lost on purpose, or else she would be in for a truly torturous session.

"You are defeated," the Crimson Maiden stated. Her voice was flat, showing neither approval for nor disappointment in Erstin's performance. "Per our agreement, your body is mine for the period of two hours. The enchantment will remain in place to protect you from physical harm, but that is the only limit I will respect. If you wish to plead mercy, I recommend you do so now. You may not have the option once I begin."

Pleading for a reprieve was currently the furthest thing from Erstin's mind. The Maiden's frank description of what she was in for had simply served to make her more excited. The situation certainly wasn't how she would have preferred for such an encounter to go, but if Mai was to be believed, she was in for the ride of her life. Erstin shook her head slowly. "No. I'll honor our agreement."

The Crimson Maiden nodded. She raised her staff and casted a quick cantrip which caused a clock to materialize in midair. "Your time begins now."

Erstin let out a gasp as the Maiden's Child pulled up on the strands of webbing which bound her legs. They were pulled apart, exposing her lewdly before the Maiden. Erstin tilted her head up to try to get a look at what she was in for, chewing on her lip nervously and trying not to think about how exposed she was before a complete stranger – or even worse, before someone she knew but couldn't identify through the glamour.

The Maiden held up her staff, its head radiating white light. She muttered an incantation, and the glow from the staff soon grew into a blinding flush which filled the room. When it faded, the two were surrounded by darkness. The Maiden's Child had vanished, its web along with it. Instead, Erstin was bound up by what seemed to be tendrils of flame wrapped around her arms and legs. They didn't really feel like flames, though. They were smooth and slick against her skin, transmitting a warmth, almost like body heat.

A sudden burst of light from the Maiden drew Erstin's attention back to her. Her staff radiated dozens more of these flames, and her eyes glinted with lust. Before Erstin had a chance to wonder about her intentions, the flames shot off from the staff and enveloped her body. They seemed to be everywhere, moving in a delicate dance to stimulate every nerve in her skin at just the right time. A scream broke out of her throat as the shock of pleasure overwhelmed her, but it only got more intense from there.

Erstin's consciousness was seared out of her mind as the sensations fought for every scrap of attention they could get. When her mind was consumed with nothing but the thoughts of how good this caress felt, they stopped fighting for more space and simply started screaming out at her. It was only a matter of seconds before the limit was reached and she exploded in a world of glorious pleasure.

When Erstin's consciousness returned to her, the Maiden's words started to filter in. "Climaxing already? My my... I do hope you won't pass out on me. This is only the beginning of the fun I have planned for you."

* * *

**One week later**

The itch was starting to get at her again. Erstin hadn't put up much of a fight, but she was entertaining enough in the aftermath that the girl who masqueraded as the Crimson Maiden had been sufficiently satisfied for the time being. This week, however, she wanted a challenge. She wanted someone who could put up a fight, who might even be a match for her. Real risk made the reward all the sweeter.

She hadn't had a truly engaging battle since she'd fought Mai Tokiha. She'd come close to piercing the Maiden's glamour, but her inexperience had caused her to slip up at the critical moment. The experience was exhilarating, and she'd been sure to properly reward Mai in the aftermath. She'd even gone so far as to offer Mai a rematch, but she hadn't been taken up on it yet. Perhaps Mai still felt she needed to train more before she was ready.

This left the Maiden with the task to pick out a new opponent who might be worthy of her. It had seemed hopeless at first, until she overheard an offhand comment about a certain girl. Mai had been complaining about an antisocial girl who she'd nevertheless befriended, and she'd let it slip that this girl was actually something of a prodigy in battle. Recognizing the referenced girl as a particularly delectable morsel she'd spotted a number of times while they were both studying privately in the library, the Maiden made her choice.

Her target set, the Crimson Maiden began to lay her web to entrap her prey. Natsuki Kruger would be hers.


	2. Cobalt Dusk

**Author's Note:** Well it seems that people wanted me to write a couple more chapters at least of this before getting back to Oneesama. At least, those I talked to did. So, I guess I'll oblige. I think I'll also be posting up a new poll on my profile with each chapter for who people suspect the Crimson Maiden is, and reporting on the past results.

Results for Prologue guesses:

Shizuru - 8

Nao - 5

Chie - 2

Midori - 2

All others – 0

I'll be remaining tight-lipped as to how accurate the guesses are, and simply reporting. I'll just warn people: Don't be making too many assumptions here about what pairs I have planned. Or maybe I'm just saying that to try to throw you off... or maybe this sentence is meant to throw you off. ;)

* * *

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 1:** Cobalt Dusk

* * *

_My name is Natsuki Kruger, and I'm an Otome in training. I can't say my life had been going well up this point, what with my mother getting killed in a car accident and my father abandoning me while I was in a coma, but at least I'd settled into a comfortable routine. I was working to become an Otome so I'd have the strength to take care of myself. I didn't trust anyone else in the world, so I just kept to myself, making sure no one could get close. I knew I had talent, and the teachers knew it, but beyond that I just tried to fade into the background._

_It was working fine, too, right up until the point where I became the focus of Garderobe's "legendary" Crimson Maiden, who gained fame through anonymously screwing half the student populace as her spoils of victory in private duels. Why would so many consent to such terms for a duel? Well, apparently she was just that good; even losing was winning. Of course, if you were to ask me, I'd probably just grunt and ignore you. But if I did answer, I'd say that they were all just a bunch of stupid horny teenagers and I needed none of it. The problem was, a certain "Maiden" didn't agree with me on that matter._

* * *

**November 12, 1406**

Natsuki ran her hands along the bottom of her window, finding the hidden lock she'd installed and flipping it open. Checking over both shoulders to make sure no one was around, she stood up from the bush and pushed her window open. As soon as it was up, she crawled into her room and then closed and locked the window behind her. Settling onto her bed, she pulled her earnings for the night out of her pocket and started counting it up.

87.50. Quite good for a night's work. She might even be able to take a day or two off this week if she got another few good hauls. Sighing with satisfaction, she rolled off her bed to deposit the money in her lockbox.

Natsuki's work may not have been glamorous, or even something the school could officially approve of – hence why she had to sneak out to do it – but it was something she could be proud of. Students who wished to make a little extra money, or who, like Natsuki, needed to help support themselves to fully cover tuition costs, usually had only a few choices for work they could do. As Natsuki liked to characterize it, they could sell their pride, their body, or their soul. She'd lucked out and found an alternative that, although not entirely above-board, at least allowed her to face herself in the mirror when she got home at night.

Her image in the mirror wasn't the only thing she ran into this night as she stripped off to take a shower, though. The second she'd removed her undergarments, a piece of light brown parchment with crimson writing on it flashed into existence in front of her. Growling at the intrusion into her privacy – she just knew it had been delivered on the trigger of her being naked – Natsuki grabbed the piece of paper and fought the urge to immediately tear it up as she read it.

_Good evening, Natsuki. I trust this finds you well. I have heard many good things about your prowess, and so I would like to challenge you to a high-stakes duel. It is my hope that you may turn out to be the one to finally put up a fight worthy of me. Of course, with no risk, there's no excitement, and so I shall wager my very body for the period of two hours on the outcome of this battle. If you are willing to match my wager, I promise to make it worth your while._

_Anticipating your reply,_

_The Crimson Maiden_

Natsuki's eye started to twitch as she went back to reread this letter. The gall of this woman! Every part of this letter seemed designed to infuriate her with its double-entendres and not-so-subtle implications. It was designed to read in one way as a proud Otome searching for a worthy challenger who was willing to put everything on the line in battle, but if you knew the history of the "Crimson Maiden," the message was that of a lecher trying to seduce her next victim into willfully surrendering to her molestations.

If it was this Maiden's goal to intrigue Natsuki into fighting her, it had failed miserably. All it had succeeded in doing was making Natsuki feel insulted and enraged that this pervert thought she could manipulate and bed her so easily. How did she even get the idea to ask her anyways? She'd made it clear to the whole school that she just wanted them to leave her alone. Was this some stupid "defrosting the Ice Princess" deal then? _Ugh, well that's just even worse. Leave me out of cheesy smut stories, thank you very much._

Deciding to put off her shower long enough to reply to the note, Natsuki went back to her desk to grab a pen. She scribbled down a quick, "No. Screw off," on the back of it, then chanted out a quick spell to deliver it immediately. She considered using an embarrassing delivery trigger in revenge – such as when the recipient was going to the bathroom – but she ultimately decided to be the more mature person and just set it for immediate delivery. Enough time spent on that distraction, Natsuki returned to her bathroom to proceed with her shower.

* * *

**November 13, 1406**

_Natsuki shivered as a cool breeze blew across her bare flesh. Her Robe had been reduced to mere scraps now, which barely served the function of undergarments. The Crimson Maiden eyed her hungrily, standing barely an inch away from her now. Natsuki shivered under her gaze, but she made no attempt to cover up. Her arms weren't even restrained, like with the Maiden's other victims, so why wasn't she trying to cover herself?_

_Looking it the Maiden's eyes, Natsuki figured it out. Her eyes appeared to be on fire, smoldering with lust. Out of all the girls she'd done this with, only Natsuki truly aroused her so. She was different; she was special. And so Natsuki only got turned on herself as the Maiden gazed at her bared flesh, likely picturing what lay just underneath the few remaining scraps of Natsuki's Robe._

_Natsuki even allowed herself to return the favor, gazing at the Maiden's unbelievably sexy outfit and wondering what she might look like with it off. It wasn't too hard to picture, really, with how much of the shape of her breasts the top revealed. The true mystery was really in her nipples: their shape, their color, their size... their taste, even. And perhaps even her taste down lower..._

_It was just unfortunate that Natsuki hadn't won that privilege today. The Maiden had come out victorious, and so it was she who had the opportunity to partake of Natsuki's body. However, even though she could have stripped Natsuki right here and now according to their terms, she was going slowly, savoring the moment. She approached Natsuki inch by inch. She allowed her fingers to trace over Natsuki's skin, sending shivers wherever they touched._

_As the Maiden approached, she tilted her head slightly to her right and lined her lips up with Natsuki's. Natsuki could feel the Maiden's breath mingling with hers as their mouths were only inches apart. Drifting into a haze of desire, Natsuki closed her eyes and pushed her lips forwards..._

Natsuki's eyes snapped open. She spent a moment blinking them rapidly, trying to clear her head and piece together what she'd been doing in her dreams and why. The "what" was easy, and it came to her quickly enough. The "why," on the other hand, was what was really bothering her. Why had she been submitting so willingly? Why had she even agreed to that fight in the first place? But perhaps worst was, why did she seem to be enjoying it so much? Even now, her heart was still racing, and she could feel a blush on her cheeks that was just starting to fade.

_Gah, damn it!_

Punching her pillow in frustration as she got up from the bed, Natsuki made her way to her bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. This was just a bad dream, nothing more, she assured herself. The reality of the situation would surely be nothing like that dream. The Maiden wasn't known for being delicate, or for kissing her victims. Natsuki couldn't let herself imagine it being something nice like that, or else her resolve might weaken. She wasn't going to agree to fight, and if she were somehow forced into it, it would amount to rape.

Natsuki let out a relieved sigh as the cool water hit her face. She was in control of this. Nothing the Crimson Maiden could do could force her to agree to a battle, and she wasn't going to let her subconscious tempt her into it either. She had better things to do with her time than worry about this.

_Speaking of the time... _Natsuki looked over to the clock she kept on the bathroom counter. It was 8:27 am now, just a few minutes before she set her alarm to ring. Probably best to just start getting ready for class then. Once she got there, she could occupy her mind with school and put this business behind her.

* * *

"Grah!" Natsuki snapped as a piece of parchment popped into existence in front of her. It was just like the previous one, appearing the moment she'd finished stripping off her clothes to take a shower. This Maiden was definitely triggering these off Natsuki being naked, as was fitting for such a lecher. She certainly wasn't doing herself any favors when it came to convincing Natsuki to fight her, though.

She considered simply ripping up the note without reading it and just ignoring all further advances from the Maiden, but something told her that would be a bad idea. She'd heard stories of what happened to a girl who'd angered the Crimson Maiden, and she wanted to avoid getting on her bad side if at all possible. For now, that meant at least reading and replying to her notes. She still had her pride, though, and with that in mind she put her clothes back on before taking the note back to her bedroom for a read. If the Maiden insisted on maintaining contact after her refusal, then Natsuki would read on her own terms.

_I am sorry to hear that you are not presently interested in a duel. To be quite honest, I fully believe that agreeing to such a duel would be in your best interests. Despite your potential, you have been engaging in only the minimum number of duels required of you. You need to learn how to take risks, how to face defeat, and how to open yourself up to the world. I do not expect you to agree readily to this, but it is true nonetheless._

_I will leave my challenge to you open until you choose to accept it. Until such time, I will occupy myself through the means of a lucid dreaming spell. It is no substitute for reality, but I do expect to quite enjoy myself with your counterpart in my dreams._

_Anxiously waiting,_

_The Crimson Maiden_

The temperature of Natsuki's room dropped to near freezing temperatures as she read the letter, unconsciously leaking magic out into her room as her anger grew. It was only when the letter in her hands started to frost over that she realized what she was doing. She didn't care, though. At this point, she just wished she knew who the Maiden was so she could focus her magic on freezing her and teach her a lesson about common decency.

When the letter had frozen to the point where a slight motion of her hands caused it to crack down the middle, Natsuki finally snapped out of her frosty rage. She had to focus if she was going to get anywhere. This Maiden seemed determined not to give up on her, and she couldn't allow this to continue. It was pretty unlikely that she was the only student who was less than willing to face off against the Maiden and had faced this type of harassment. Perhaps some others had even caved in, and been subject to her perverted desires when they lost the battle.

This couldn't continue. If the Maiden was going to play hardball and pursue her despite Natsuki already telling her off, then the gloves were off. Natsuki resolved, she was going to unmask the Crimson Maiden. And then, if it was at all possible, she would defeat her.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, I've decided to go with shorter chapters for this fic, so I can get updates out faster. I also believe that many readers prefer it this way, though I could be wrong. Anyways, don't be afraid to let me know what you think.

Poll has been reset, feel free to make your guess there. I'm trimming it down this time to just those options which got votes and an "other" option. If you vote for "other," let me know who you meant and I'll add that for the next update.


	3. Mai Interrogation

**Author's Note:**

Results for Chapter 1 guesses:

Shizuru - 56

Nao - 13

Midori - 6

Chie - 2

Other – From reviews, 1 for Arika, 2 for "more than one person." I'll add both of these to the options for the round of polling after this chapter.

One note on Garderobe within this story: For the purposes of the storyline and fitting in all the characters, it's a three-year school in this universe, not two-year. I'd prefer to just reveal this naturally in the story, but I think it's better to just state that rather than risking people getting confused because they expect it to be otherwise.

Many apologies for the wait in this chapter, for everyone who's still interested in this story. Other stories and real life got in the way. You know, that old story. Anyways, here you are, at last...

* * *

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 2:** Mai-Interrogation

* * *

_This "Crimson Maiden" really has no idea what she's gotten into with me. I take out slime like her for a living. You might have heard of the Windbloom Urban Cleansing Project, an ill-defined operation to handle the out-of-control crime rate in the city. Most taxpayers decry it as a money sink which seems to do nothing aside from funnel their funds into the mysteries of bureaucracy. The fact that crime's been dropping ever since it was instituted? Coincidence._

_Of course, I wouldn't be bringing this up if the project were your run-of-the-mill money sink. I work for it, as a matter of fact, though it's all under the table. I really don't know how the whole project works, but to put it simply, I'm paid to clean up the streets of scum. I'm not the only one doing this, nor is this all the project entails, but that's pretty much all I know of the larger scope._

_Not that it really matters though. It pays the bills, it's respectable, and hopefully it's given me the training I need to be able to defeat the Crimson Maiden. Unfortunately, identifying her is another issue. Detective work isn't my specialty, though I've picked up a few tricks here and there. How much I've isolated myself from my peers is also going to hurt, as I won't have the knowledge base to draw on. I really hate to say it, but I'm going to need help.

* * *

_**November 14, 1406**

"Mai," Natsuki said as she grabbed the back of her friend's shirt and pulled her away. She ignored Mai's startled protests and the shocked looks from the other girls sitting at the table around her. If Mai was so intent on being her friend, she'd better be prepared to put up with Natsuki when she was in a bad mood. If she wasn't, then at least Natsuki would be free from a nuisance.

Mai slapped Natsuki's hand away and glared at her before she was pulled far, but she did still allow Natsuki to guide her away from the group at her table. Natsuki wondered if she was just glad that Natsuki was the one to initiate conversation for a change, or perhaps she was just trying to be the polite one. It didn't really matter in the end though. Natsuki just searched through the stacks of books in the library until she found a hall near the back that was a good distance from any other students, and she pulled Mai into it.

"You know Natsuki," Mai said as she once again pulled her hand out of the girl's grasp. "Most people would start a conversation with 'Good day' or 'Hello, Mai,' not simply drag me away."

Natsuki leaned against the stack of books and glared over at Mai. "I said 'Mai,' didn't I?"

"Right." Mai rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms and leaned against the bookcase across from Natsuki. "It's a start, though if you want to talk to me, in the future, you could try, you know, _asking_. I was kinda in the middle of studying there with friends – you may have heard of this phenomenon – but I would have taken a break if you'd just asked me."

Natsuki grunted. "Yeah, whatever. You're here now, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I'm going to walk right back and refuse to talk to you for the rest of the day unless you apologize for manhandling me."

"Tch!" Natsuki turned her head away so she didn't give away her frustration to Mai. She was more perceptive than Natsuki had expected, figuring out that her friend needed something from her now and using it to blackmail her. If it were any other situation, Natsuki would have welcomed getting Mai to leave her alone for the day, but she couldn't abandon her mission this easily. Sometimes you just had to sacrifice a little of your pride for the sake of your goals. "Sorry," she mumbled.

Natsuki could see Mai's posture relaxing out of the corner of her eye. "That's better. Thanks, Natsuki. Now, what did you want to talk about?"

Natsuki gave her face a few seconds to stop twitching at the indignity of her apology before responding. "The Crimson Maiden," she said, turning her head back to gauge Mai's reaction. "What do you know about her?"

It was a good thing Natsuki had turned back, for Mai's reaction was certainly one she was glad she hadn't missed. The girl nearly jumped in surprise at the mention of the Crimson Maiden, and then she quickly tried to recover and look nonchalant, though the profuse blush on her face gave her away. "Er, um, what do you mean?" Mai said, her voice cracking noticeably on "mean."

Natsuki allowed herself a brief snicker at her friend's reaction. That probably made them even, now. Best to just get down to business then. "She's been harassing me, so I want to find out who she is. Judging by your reaction, I suspect you may know something there."

Mai coughed and cleared her throat loudly to try to regain control of her voice, which fortunately didn't draw the attention of anyone nearby – Garderobe's library served as a communal area for students, so there was always a certain background level of noise, which helped to afford students a certain level of privacy when they needed it. "Yeah, uh, I guess you could say that..." Her voice was steadier now, and her cheeks had started to lose their blush, even if neither was quite back to normal.

Natsuki stared at Mai calmly. Silence was often a more useful tool for gaining information than questions. When you were yelling questions at someone, they tended to shut up and let the questioner yell their heart out. When faced with silence from an inquisitor, on the other hand, it made them nervous, and it made them want to fill it up. It was nothing so malicious in this case, though. Natsuki simply wasn't sure exactly what Mai knew, so she didn't know what questions she should be asking. Mai knew what Natsuki wanted in general terms, she could supply the specifics on her own.

"Alright!" Mai let out a frustrated grunt. "You're freaking annoying when you pull that silent act, you know?"

_And yet, it never fails._ Natsuki smirked, and she lightened her gaze on Mai just slightly.

"I fought her, okay?" Mai said, letting out a sigh and leaning against the bookcase. Her blush started to grow back in her cheeks as she talked. "I thought I could win. I could wipe the floor with all but a couple Pearls, and even most Crystals. Even if I couldn't win – I know there are still a few Crystals that are definitely better than me – I thought I'd at least be able to unmask her. But I lost. She did things to me, made me almost glad to lose... That is, if you forget I said 'almost' there... heh..."

Natsuki rolled her eyes and tried to prevent herself from thinking about Mai naked and at the Crimson Maiden's mercy. Most likely tied up with those weird flame-rope things she'd heard rumors about, while other flame tendrils worked over her body, and then inside her body as well. _Gah, no, need a distraction... stupid hormonal mind won't leave me alone._

"So, um..." Natsuki said, mostly to distract herself. "Was she really that good?" _...In bed?_ "In battle! I mean, um, there can't be that many students who could beat you like that, so it should narrow the possibilities down, at least."

"Well..." Mai said. Fortunately she didn't seem to have caught on to where Natsuki's thoughts were going. Judging from her blush, this was likely because her own thoughts were just getting out of there as well. "She was pretty good, certainly, but I never really got to push her to the limits of her ability to see. I got cocky, thought I'd figured out who she was. Tried an unmasking spell, but I was wrong, so just ended up knocking myself out of the battle when it recoiled."

"I see," Natsuki said. "Well, it's something. So who was your guess? That's one possibility out of the way, at least."

Mai seemed to have regained her composure again by this time, and she looked over at Natsuki with a smirk. "I think I've told you more than enough for now. You want to know that, you're going to have to do something for me."

Natsuki growled. She didn't like negotiating, but the matter of friendship required a much different tact than she was used to. "Fine. What is it?"

Mai's smirk widened evilly. "Make a few friends." She grabbed Natsuki's wrist and led the girl outside the stack of books.

"Huh? Wait a minute!" Natsuki said, yanking her arm free from Mai's grasp.

"Too late, you already agreed," Mai said, once again taking hold of Natsuki and dragging her across the library. "Besides, don't think I don't know the thoughts you had going through your head there. You back out now, I'll make sure the whole school knows you're having perverted thoughts about me. I think even Garderobe's famed Ice Princess might melt under that much heat."

"What? No, it's not like that! I'm seriously not into that kind of thing with girls. With anyone!" Natsuki tried to once again extract herself from Mai's grasp, but her resolve was weakening. Getting caught like that had her off-balance.

Mai paused for a moment, chuckling at Natsuki's denial. "Yeah," she said. "That's what I swore, too. Now come, or you'll have to worry that I'll show up at your room some night, and then when I have you alone, start doing a slow, sensuous striptease for you, until all of your denial just bleeds its way out of your nose and you succumb to my charms, and I teach you exactly what the Crimson Maiden taught me."

Natsuki was paralyzed. Her mind ran in circles, trying to beat itself up in a way to get that scene out of her head. There was also the problem of how Mai was able to see through her so easily, to exploit her weaknesses like that... _Stupid friendship! What did I ever do to you? Couldn't we just leave each other alone? I don't bother with friends, they don't torture me like this. But no..._

"Or, if you'd prefer," Mai said, "I could just introduce you to some of my friends, you could try to get along with them, and I'll let this whole subject drop."

Natsuki's world blinked back into focus at this offer. "Gah. Fine."

Mai smiled at her. "Thank you, Natsuki. I'm sure you'll come to appreciate this, eventually."

_And I'm sure that you'll pay dearly for this. Somehow._


	4. Ultra Detective Irina Woods

**Author's Note:**

Results for Chapter 2 guesses:

Shizuru - 6

Nao - 1

More than one person - 1

Chie - 0

Midori - 0

Arika - 0

Not that many votes this time. Perhaps because I'm updating faster, or more likely just a combination of this site's server troubles the day after I posted the last chapter (which also resulted in fewer reviews :( ) and the fact that there weren't many new hints there. But we get to some real information this chapter, no worries. This is where the detective work starts in earnest.

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 3:** Ultra Detective Irina Woods

X-X-X

_Fine, I admit it: I'm human. I have teenage hormones of my own. You happy? I mean, it's really not that surprising that my thoughts would go to girls, even, seeing as Garderobe's an all-girl school and the only men I tend to have contact with are criminals and thugs out on the streets of Windbloom. Besides, the level of sex-craze around Garderobe just isn't normal. It has to be some weird side-effect of magic use that elevates our hormone levels._

_Gah, or maybe I'm just looking for excuses for that stupid dream last night. I've even started wishing the school didn't have alarms set in place for dream-influencing spells, just so I could blame it on that Crimson Maiden bitch screwing with my mind directly. I even had to look up on lucid dreaming spells to see if there was any possibility of one leaking out and affecting my dreams, but no such luck._

_Tch, but even so, I still say that's pretty damn sleazy of her. What right does she have to molest my image in her dreams? It's still a fucking invasion of my privacy, whether it directly affects me or not!_

_Ah, anger. That's better. Use that, scare off whatever potential friends Mai has in store, and then scare her out of any sort of revenge. I'll be fine as long as I just keep channeling all this frustration into anger._

**November 14, 1406**

Natsuki's eyebrow started to twitch in anger as Mai shoved her down into a chair at the table she'd previously occupied. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Natsuki Kruger. Feel free to say 'hello' – her bark is worse than her bite."

"Mai!" Natsuki snapped. This prompted some giggles to her right, but they faded before she caught who exactly it was – though it was either the slightly shy-looking ponytailed girl who was avoiding her gaze or the girl whose only visible feature was a mop of messy black hair above her lunchbox. Soon enough though, she was drowned in a sea of greetings, so she was forced to drop the matter, and she mumbled back a greeting of her own. "Hey..."

Mai sat down beside Natsuki and pointed to her friends. "Natsuki, I'd like you to meet Sara Gallagher, Irina Woods, Akane Soir, and Mikoto Minagi – she's the one buried in her lunchbox. Come on out, Mikoto. Say hello to Natsuki."

The black-haired girl at the end of the table paused in her meal to look up at Natsuki. The two gazed at each other silently for a long moment before Natsuki broke the silence. "You're not supposed to have food in here, you know."

Blink. Blink again. "I know." And Mikoto was back to her meal.

"Wait a second, did Mai say your last name was Kruger? You're _the _Kruger?"

Natsuki turned to face the blonde girl to her left – Sara, she recalled. "Um, yeah, why?" What was she, famous? She'd tried to keep as low a profile as possible at Garderobe. She wasn't famous for her skills, like Mai. And even if she were, she'd be known by her first name to other students.

Sara gazed at Natsuki with awe-struck eyes. "A legend in the flesh! I can't believe it... I thought you'd be a ton older... and male. Is it true what they say about you? Did you really knock out the leader of the Rand Street Reds with a single punch?"

_What the...?_ _Yamada. It has to be, the bastard. And I'm his fucking inspirational story to the newbies. Just great._ After putting the pieces together, Natsuki tried to shrug the incident off. "It was nothing. He tried to get sweet with me; I taught him better." She finished this off with a knowing look at Sara. _Leave it there. Don't mention the Project._ They could probably pass off what Sara had already said as just rumors on the street. Fortunately, Sara seemed to get the hint.

"Way to go, Natsuki!" Mai slapped her side playfully. "You've got your first fan! Imagine how many more you'll get when you defeat the Crimson Maiden."

Natsuki's head snapped to the side and she glared at her friend. She started to growl in displeasure, but she cut herself off at the sound of a voice from across the table. "Is that true, Natsuki? You really think you can defeat the Crimson Maiden?" This was accompanied by various murmurings of curiosity from the other girls at the table – at least from those who weren't buried in their lunch.

It was the ponytailed girl who said this. Natsuki gave Mai a reprieve from her glare and faced Akane with a small sigh. "Well, that's the plan. She wouldn't take no for an answer when she asked me for a duel, and I can't just let someone get away with that type of harassment. Wouldn't be surprised if she's done this to others as well."

"Oh wow," the redhaired girl with glasses – Irina – said. "Kinda wish she'd challenged me. Mai was quite impressed with her." Mai let out a grunt at this, but refrained from commenting. Perhaps it was out of fear that her voice would crack again if she spoke. "But if she's harassing you... well that's no good. I haven't heard about her harassing anyone else though. Everyone just seems to like her attention, and they treat is a badge of honor to be challenged to a duel with her, and even more so to accept it."

"Well yeah," Sara said. "But what if someone really didn't like her attention? What if she was coerced into accepting the duel, but wasn't really prepared to go through with it. Who would admit to that publicly? She'd be branded an instant outcast."

_Exactly!_ Natsuki noted silently. _Sharp kid... maybe this wasn't such a bad idea at all._ She started to mutter a conjuration spell softly, generating a scrap of paper and a pencil in hands. As Akane started to reply, Natsuki scribbled down her room number and a quick message to talk later on it.

"I guess that's a good point," Akane said. "But what difference would it really make if she's done this before?"

"Because," Natsuki said, as she passed off the note to Sara under the table and focused her gaze on Akane. "If I'm taking her to task for her crimes, I want the full list. Even if it is just me she ever harassed, then I'll just teach her a lesson for that."

"Besides," Mai chimed in, "if it turns out she's done this a lot, or hurt some girl pretty badly, we could bring it to the faculty. I'm sure Miss Maria would have no problem finding out who the Crimson Maiden is, if she doesn't already know."

Natsuki shook her head. "No, this is my problem, and I should handle it. I shouldn't have gotten the rest of you involved, even. It's not your fight." Letting out a sigh, Natsuki pushed herself back from the table and got up. "Forget it, just let me handle this. It's not like any of you have anything against the Crimson Maiden."

The table was silent for a moment, and Natsuki thought she had her clearing to leave. She really wasn't good at this socializing stuff, and she could use a break from it anyways. She made her way towards the library's door, and had just rounded the table when a figure jumped in front of her and stopped Natsuki with her outstretched hand.

"Alright, that's enough!" Akane said. Her calm demeanor had faded, and she gave Natsuki a glare that, even if it couldn't beat out the Kruger Death Glare, was at least a worthy contender. "What kind of Otome would we be if we let an incident like this pass? A student is potentially going around harassing her classmates, and you just expect us to stand by while you deal with it yourself?

"I'm sorry, but no. Otome are the defenders of peace in the world. If we can't maintain the peace in our own school, we don't deserve to graduate. And if you won't accept help when you need it, then neither do you. I don't know how much I can really do to help, but if we all work together, we can come up with a lot more than you could alone."

"She's right, you know." Sara's voice came from Natsuki's side, and she turned to find that the Coral had stood up beside Akane now. "I can go out and canvas the students, find out if the Maiden's been harassing anyone else. Information gathering is my specialty. I can even make sure no one suspects anything; I'll just say it's for next week's edition of the Scryer. It's the student polling issue anyways.

"We can all help you out here – even Mikoto. No one ever pays her any attention, but she always pays attention to everyone else, even if it doesn't look like it. She could recite our entire conversation word-for-word if you asked her. She's perfect for keeping an ear out for clues."

Natsuki stared at the girls in front of her for a good minute, before finally dropping her gaze to the floor. _Damn it all..._ As much as she hated to admit it, they had a point. She couldn't fail, and if it took help to succeed, she had to accept it. Taking a deep breath in, Natsuki let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. You win, you can help."

A hand fell on her shoulder, causing Natsuki to instinctively jerk in surprise and push it away. She turned to find Mai grinning at her. "Hehe, good girl, Natsuki. I knew you'd come to your senses." Natsuki growled at Mai, warning her not to push her luck. Fortunately, she took the hint. "Heh, alright, alright."

After holding her glare for an extra second, Natsuki let it drop. It was just getting tiring maintaining her anger like this. "Right. Thanks, Mai."

Mai gave Natsuki another smile, and she lead the girl back to her seat. With another sigh, Natsuki followed, dropping into her seat and resting her head on her arms, which were folded on the table. Even if she'd agreed to give this a try, she still wasn't good at the whole socializing thing, so she was at a loss as to what to say next. In the end, she decided to just play it silent until someone else spoke up.

Natsuki found herself staring across the table at Irina, who'd been quiet for a while now. It seemed she'd been scribbling down something in her notebook. Pushing her head forward, Natsuki saw what looked like the profiles of various students sketched out there. "What's that?" she asked. "A suspects list?"

"Heh, yeah," Irina said. She placed her pencil down with a chuckle and stretched her arms behind her head. "It's getting way too long though. All I really have at this point is a list of students who might be good enough in battle to defeat all the students we know the Crimson Maiden has. Right now that's about 70% of the Crystal class, plus a couple Pearls. Still about 15 or so, so it's not too useful."

"Well, why don't we try to narrow it down some?" Natsuki said. "There has to be something more we can figure out. What's her preferred Child, for one? Figure that out, and we could match her to the student bonded to that Child. Or maybe her fighting style, even." Natsuki leaned back in her chair and looked over at Mai. "Any input here? You're the only one of us that has fought her."

"Heh, well I wish I could say something about her fighting style," Mai said, "but it's really like nothing I've seen from any other student. Well, except perhaps my own style. She really goes all out with the 'Crimson' theme, which means lots of fire and stuff. Don't know of any other student that normally does that, though. Maybe Midori? She's not too far off..."

"Well, she's already got the flaming hair going for her," Irina noted. "But it's obvious that the whole Crimson Maiden appearance is an illusion at some level. Probably a glamour spell cast on herself, so we really don't know how much we can trust to reflect the real person underneath it."

"Maybe," Akane said, a smirk forming on her face. "But I think I know someone who can help us do a bit better than that. Hold on, let me find her. I think I saw her over near the reference desk earlier." Natsuki watched as Akane got off to go search for the student she was referring to. Everyone else seemed to think this was a fine idea, so she decided to just keep her mouth shut and not make a further ass of herself by protesting the involvement of yet another person.

"Hmm, well in the meantime, what about her Child, Mai? Perhaps her preferred Child could help us pin her down?" Irina asked, after Akane had vanished into the bookshelves.

"Eh, it probably wasn't her bonded Child she used when she fought me," Mai said. She leaned back in her chair, scratching the back of her neck absentmindedly. "Once I summoned Kagutsuchi, she summoned out Ashur. That was probably directly to counter Kagutsuchi, which he did surprisingly well. Though I guess he could actually be her bonded Child, and it was just luck there..."

"'Ashur'?" Natsuki said. "Never heard of that one. What is it?"

Mai snorted. "Really, Natsuki, you need to try out some other Childs sometime. Nothing against Yafusa, but you need to branch out a bit."

"His name is Duran!" Natsuki snapped back. "Well, at least mine's is. And no, I have no plans to even try out another Child. You're always best with your bonded Child, right? Well that's good enough for me. So just forget it and tell me about Ashur."

Mai rolled her eyes and turned back to the table. "Fine, fine. Ashur's the bull-warrior. Also known as the dragon-slayer, which was why he was able to handle Kagutsuchi so easily. Only Child that's ever really given him any trouble. Well, except for your Ya- er, Duran. At least you're great with that dog, even if you never try anything else."

Natsuki shot Mai another glare to drop the subject. If she was a friend, she should just be able to accept that it was a sore spot, not keep poking at it. Fortunately for Mai, though, Akane's return helped spare Mai from Natsuki's wrath. Natsuki forced her rage to subside as she gazed at the new arrival: A mousy girl with untamed brown hair, who seemed to be cowering shyly behind Akane.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet my friend, Yukino Chrysant. Don't expect her to ever admit it, but she's the best illusionist this school has ever seen." Yukino blushed and tried to hide behind Akane as she was introduced, but she was pulled back to the front so Akane could introduce her to the rest of the girls there. "...and that's Natsuki. She's the one who's planning on taking down the Crimson Maiden, but we're going to need your help. We need to know more about the illusions she uses, to see if there's something more we can figure out about who she is."

Yukino's eyes widened at this, seeing that she was needed here. The gesture caused her glasses to slip from her nose, though, and she quickly lost her composure and regained her blush as she readjusted them. "Ah, well, I'll do what I can, I guess," she said.

Akane pulled up a nearby chair for Yukino, and then she helped push the seemingly-oblivious Mikoto aside to make room for the new girl at the table. When Yukino was settled, Akane said, "We were talking about the illusion spell the Crimson Maiden uses to disguise herself. I was thinking that maybe you might be able to tell us more about how she could do that. All I remember hearing is that no illusion can be perfect."

"Ah, well that's mostly true," Yukino said. She smiled and adjusted her glasses again. "You see, a glamour – that's an illusion that disguises yourself – can in theory be complete. The problem is that when it's complete, even the weakest attempt at dispelling it will always succeed. Glamours are stronger the less they change about the caster. If you change a single thing, like the color of your eyes, then it's nearly impossible to dispel – but of course, there isn't much need to, generally speaking.

"On the other end, the most common glamours used to disguise a person will consist of altering everything except one key feature, called their 'maintained feature' – often something like her hair color, hairstyle, eye color, facial features, or body shape. If the caster has notable physical quirk, like a distinctive grin, they can leave that as well. When disguised like this, you have to either know the person's identity or which feature they've left unaltered in order to dispel the glamour."

Irina's eyes opened wide at this. "That's perfect, Yukino! Just the lead we need to narrow down our list of suspects."

Yukino seemed honestly surprised at this. "It is?"

"Of course, Yukino," Mai said, giving the girl a pat on the shoulder. "This means we can start with the common features someone might leave undisguised, and then list off the students who have them who could be the Maiden."

Yukino smiled at the praise. She might have been shy about getting involved at first, but she was adjusting a lot faster than Natsuki. It was a hard thought for the girl to stomach. What was wrong with her that she had so much trouble with this kind of thing?

"Great then!" Irina said, drawing some sort of chart in her notebook. "Let's get started then. Start with the aspects of her appearance that be left unchanged, and then we'll list off all the students who match the Crimson Maiden and are strong enough to pull it off. Yukino, you're most familiar with this type of spell, so why don't you give us the body parts? And then Mai can tell us how they look on the Maiden."

"Ah, alright then," Yukino said with a nod. She spent a couple seconds thinking, and then continued. "Well, why don't we start at the top and work down? Hair, first of all. You can go with color or style or there. How about color first? She's a redhead, right?"

"Yeah," Mai said. She pointed to her own hair. "But redder than mine, and a bit brighter than Irina's. More like Midori's color."

"Alright! Midori's our first suspect then," Irina said as she wrote in her notebook. "Anyone else?"

"Nao." This came from Mikoto, surprisingly enough. It seemed that she'd finally finished her lunch and had started focusing on the conversation.

"Nao... she's a Pearl, right? Is she good enough to be the Maiden?" Sara asked.

"Oh yeah," Mai said. "She's great. I dueled her once, earlier this year. I beat her then, but it was one hell of a fight."

"And she's watching us," Mikoto said.

"That's right, and she's- wait, what?" Mai turned to look at Mikoto, while Akane and Irina immediately started looking around the library to see if Nao was there. Natsuki and Sara, at least, had the presence of mind to not immediately start looking for her, while Yukino was blushing for some reason and trying to shrink into her seat.

Fortunately, Akane and Irina stopped looking around when their gazes crossed with Natsuki's. When the table had calmed down, Mikoto took a chance to explain. "Since about when Akane got back with Yukino. She's pretending to be asleep or resting in her chair with a book across her face, but she's got an opening to watch us."

"Really..." Irina said, her voice lowered. "You sure she doesn't just have her book that way by coincidence?"

"Yes." The girls waited for Mikoto to clarify, but she said nothing more. Apparently she'd spoken herself out with her last clarification and was returning to her silent act.

"Eh, well I guess it's no biggie," Mai said. "She can't hear anything from over there anyways. Why don't you continue, Yukino. What's next?"

"Well, we did hair color, so how about hair style? I really haven't heard anything about how she keeps her hair, though."

"Ah, well she has it down long," Mai said. "Kind of like Natsuki's length, except it seemed to float around a bit more than seemed natural. It was like she wanted to give the impression that it was alive, like a flickering flame."

"Oh!" Yukino said, "Well that can't be it, then. If she did anything magical to her hair after using it as her maintained feature, it would break the illusion. She's even risking it if she styles her hair differently from normal, so if her haircut isn't recognizable as the same as any student we know, then we can rule that out."

"Alright then," Mai said. "What else could it be?"

"Er, well, we get to the face now," Yukino said as she fiddled with her glasses. "In fact, the most common maintained feature is one's eyes. Eye color can be a pretty weak indicator of who the real person is, and you'd have to get a very good look to be able to make a positive identification. Probably going to be our biggest list here, whatever eye color the Maiden has."

"Ah!" Mai said with a grin. "Not so. The Maiden went all out with her flame theme. Even her eyes were colored red, so we don't have to worry too much about inflating the list of suspects there. What else could it be, Yukino?"

Yukino opened her mouth to speak, but Mikoto beat her to it, with just a single word. "Shizuru."

Mai looked over at her friend. "What was that, Mikoto?"

"Shizuru Viola," the girl said. "Has red eyes."

"Really?" Akane said. "I thought they were just brown."

"Yeah, I've never heard of anyone having red eyes before," Irina said. "Are you sure, Mikoto?" Mikoto nodded slowly in response. Irina gave a shrug and said, "Heh, must be some weird genetic quirk, I guess. Ah well, I'll add her to the list."

Yukino cleared her throat and spoke up. "Next thing then?" At nods from around the table, she continued. "Well, the face structure then. It's a bit harder to use this as your maintained feature for a glamour, unless you have something pretty distinctive on your face, like a birthmark or scar."

(**Author's Note:** The following conversation has been mistakenly retconned out, thanks to me forgetting about it after my hiatus. Leaving it in for continuity, but I'm going with the new series of events now. Mea Culpa.)

"Ah, well she had nothing like that," Mai said. "Though I really thought I had her from the grin. It actually looked a lot like ones I'd seen Chie give when flirting with girls, and it seemed to fit her, as the player type, to be the Maiden." Mai gave a grimace. "Not her though. Tried to catch her with an unmasking spell, but I was wrong. She's one person you can rule out for sure, if nothing else."

_Took you long enough to reveal that._ Natsuki glared at her friend, realizing that she'd forgotten that Mai had someone she could rule out up until this moment. It was really all she was planning to stay for at first, but she'd gotten distracted. At least they still were making some good progress here.

"You didn't know, Mai?" Sara said. "Chie has a girlfriend in Windbloom. She may be a shameless flirt, but she'd never go as far as the Crimson Maiden has. She's too loyal for that, even if she can't rein her habits in."

"Wait, what? She never told me that!" Mai protested. For some reason that Natsuki couldn't fathom, Mai's cheeks were starting to tint red as she said this.

Sara shrugged. "Well, it's not exactly the best way to flirt with someone. Though if you want to have some fun with her, you could bring it up next time she tries something with you. Should be good for a laugh. The girlfriend's name is Aoi Senoh, by the way."

"Will do," Mai said with a glare. Natsuki didn't particularly envy Chie's position at that moment.

"Ah, okay," Yukino said, clearing her throat to try to break the tension. "So nothing else from her face, Mai?"

Mai let her glare fade and then thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Nah, nothing else."

(**Author's Note:** End retconned out section. Sorry about this.)

"Okay then," Yukino said with a nod. "That just leaves her body type. Did she have any distinctive features there – very short, very tall, that kind of thing?"

"Well, she was rather tall, but not unusually so," Mai said. She gave the issue some more thought before asking, "Would big breasts work?"

"Uh..." A nervous blush hit Yukino's cheeks. "Yeah, I guess they would. I mean... er, how big?"

"As big as mine," Mai said, "if not a bit bigger. You can't help but notice them. She wore an outfit designed to show them off. Wouldn't be surprised at all if those were her... what did you call it, 'maintained feature'?"

Yukino nodded. "Yeah. But how many girls at this school have... breasts... that big? I mean, yours are, er, pretty big... if you don't mind my saying so!"

Yukino eyed Mai nervously, but the girl just waved it off. "Oh, don't worry. I like them. Mikoto does too, for that matter. She says they make a good pillow. Isn't that right, Mikoto?"

Mikoto's face spread out in a grin, and she eyed Mai's chest hungrily. "Yup! Other girls here have big breasts too. Shizuru, Haruka Armitage. But Mai's are my favorite!"

As Natsuki snickered at Mikoto's affection, Irina jotted down Haruka's name in her notebook. "Alright then!" she said. "We have our initial suspects list! Midori Aswad, Nao Zhang, Shizuru Viola, and Haruka Armitage are our possible Crimson Maidens. Everybody, keep an eye on them, see if you can figure out anything. And keep track of when you see them around, too. We might be able to rule out one of them if we can place her somewhere else when we know the Crimson Maiden has a duel."

Mai clapped her hands together with a grin. "Great! Thank you all. I knew you could help us out. Now aren't you glad I made you come here, Natsuki?"

Natsuki glared at Mai. _Don't push your luck._ She had to admit that Mai had a point, but that just frustrated her more. She couldn't explain it, but something was just rubbing her the wrong way about this. It felt like Mai was treating her like an idiot who needed to be shown the blindingly obvious. She didn't like being patronized, even less than she liked trying to get along with others.

Mai shrugged at Natsuki's reaction. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have her identity figured out in no time. Then it's only a matter of you defeating her. With the edge a successful unmasking will give you, I'm sure you could pull it off. We'll just have to get you to use another Child for once, so the Maiden can't just counter Yafusa."

Natsuki's eyebrow twitched involuntarily at this suggestion. "No." She tried to bore a hole in Mai's forehead with her gaze.

Mai ignored Natsuki's glare and rolled her eyes. "Oh come on! It's not that big a deal. I'll even show you how to work well with Kagutsuchi if you want. You'll be fine."

"I said, 'No.'"

Mai might have been oblivious, but Akane at least sensed the hostility coming from Natsuki. "Maybe you should just let this drop, Mai..."

"What do you mean?" Mai said, turning to her. "Natsuki needs to learn to use more than just the one Child if she's ever going to be fully proficient as an Otome. Now is as good a time as any to wean her off of that mutt a little."

"Mutt!" Natsuki's yell caught the attention of most of the library as she jumped out of her chair. She'd given up controlling her twitching face at this point. "_Never_ talk about Duran like that! If you aren't even going to try to understand me, then don't press this issue."

Mai finally seemed to grasp the fact that she might have pushed Natsuki too far this time. "Natsuki, I..."

"Forget it," Natsuki said. She pushed her chair back under the table. "I've had enough for today. _Thank you_... to the rest of you." With a final glare at Mai, Natsuki stormed off.

Natsuki drifted the halls of the school, not even paying attention to where she was going. Her mind was firmly trapped in the past, with her Duran. Life just wasn't fair to him. He'd given everything – to life, and to Natsuki. He was a proud animal, beautiful even. But the world didn't like beauty, and it felt it had to tear it all away from her in a senseless accident.

Natsuki paused in her step; something had caught her eye. Flowers, all around her. Even in the trees above her, cherry blossoms bloomed. It was as if the world was trying to rub it in to her. It could have all the beauty it wanted, but she could get none of that. All it did was take from her. As much as she tried to clean up the world, it never did anything for her in return. She was fed up with it. If the world wanted to take from her, then she would take from it.

Kneeling down near the flower bed, Natsuki searched for the proper target for her vengeance. She picked out the largest, most beautiful flower in the bed, and she wrapped her fingers around its petals. It was petty, she knew, and it wasn't near what the world had taken from her, but she'd had enough. She needed to make a statement, to let life know she wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

"Please don't do that," a soft voice said – a flash of beauty slipping its way into Natsuki's life.

X-X-X

_From the journal of Ultra Detective Irina Woods..._

_Hey, Natsuki! I'm sending you a copy of my suspects list. Let me know if you get any new info on any of them!_

_Suspect #1: Midori Al-Aswad_

_Evidence: Red hair matches Crimson Maiden. Carefree attitude makes playing Maiden likely._

_Bonded Child: Gakutenou_

_Fighting Style: Full assault_

_Suspect #2: Nao Zhang (Full name Juliet Nao Zhang, but it's really not safe to call her that.)_

_Evidence: Red hair matches Crimson Maiden, was eavesdropping on us as we talked._

_Bonded Child: Julia_

_Fighting Style: Disable opponent, then strike a coup de grace_

_Suspect #3: Shizuru Viola_

_Evidence: Red eyes and large breasts match Crimson Maiden. Rumors are that she's a closet lecher, too..._

_Bonded Child: Kiyohime_

_Fighting Style: Defensive; evades or blocks attacks, counters as she can_

_Suspect #4: Haruka Armitage_

_Evidence: Large breasts match Crimson Maiden. Doesn't really seem her style though, hiding her identity. Though it's not unheard of to play a double life like that..._

_Bonded Child: __Koumokuten_

_Fighting Style: Full assault, even more reckless than Midori's. I don't think she knows the meaning of the word "defense"_

_Suspect #5: Mai Tokiha_

_Evidence: Large breasts match Crimson Maiden. Also shares the Maiden's affinity for fire_

_Bonded Child: Kagutsuchi_

_Fighting Style: Balanced attack/defense_

_Yeah, I added Mai in. I don't know... I just wanted to be thorough. She's a good friend, but she is in the perfect position to lead us astray, and the fire element match might be telling. Let's keep an eye on her, at least, okay?_

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** There ya go! The chase is on, and you have your first official suspects list. I'll keep all those five in the poll for now, along with other guesses that readers may favor. It's reset now, so go chime in! Feel free to speculate in a review as well. That's always entertaining to read. ;)


	5. Blooming Sakura

**Author's Note:** Poll results for last chapter:

Shizuru - 22

Nao - 3

Midori - 2

Mai - 2

More than one person - 1

Haruka - 0

Other - 0

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 4:** Blooming Sakura

X-X-X

_Let me describe my family to you, at least as it used to be. The basics: Father, mother, daughter, and pet dog. Both of my parents worked, so they didn't have time for a second child, but other than that it looks like your typical family. Of course, there really is no such thing as "typical," but we weren't that far off._

_My father first: Aldric Kruger, Count of the island Kruger. Married my mother because she was of suitable nobility, but never actually cared about her. Ran around on her all the time, chasing whatever young girl took his fancy. Got drunk and picked fights with my mother over nothing. I don't think he ever got violent, though I could be wrong. There are plenty of ways to be abusive that won't leave marks, in any case._

_My mother: Saeko Kruger, born Saeko Shindou. A princess from Zipang who was taken away from all she knew for an arranged marriage with my father. She made the most of it. though, and dedicated her life to intellectual pursuits, and later taking care of me as well. From what I understand, she was working on the details behind Otome magic. She was always the perfect mother to me, making up for how neglectful my father was._

_Finally, Duran. He was a wolfhound, and one of the most proud and loyal creatures I ever knew – humans included. The only way to really do Duran justice is to tell what happened on the day of the accident. My mother was driving us home when something, perhaps a spot of oil on the road, caused the car to lose traction while we were driving along a cliff. The car flew off the edge and hit the water below, hard._

_Everything seemed to happen so slowly then. My mother's arm hit the steering wheel as we hit the water, and it was broken horribly. With her other arm, she was able to roll down the window as the car was flooding with water, shouting at me to get my seatbelt off. When it was open she reached back to me – causing even more damage to her arm in the process. I still remember the way it looked... with the bone sticking through the skin... Anyways... my mother, at great pain to herself, helped me out the window, through the rushing tide of water._

_My mother tried to unbuckle her own seatbelt to get out, but she couldn't work with her right arm, and her left couldn't get the leverage to unbuckle it, especially with the water making motion more difficult. Duran's barking alerted her to the fact that I was hanging near the window, not wanting to leave her behind. In my childish idiocy, I'd even hung on as the car was sinking underwater._

_The look in my mother's eyes then breaks my heart whenever I think back to it. She knew she was done for, but she needed to save me. With all her strength, she helped Duran move across her lap so he could get out the window, pushing me up. Duran pushed me away at first, but he soon broke for the surface and I immediately tried to get back to my mother, to help her get out of the car. Even through the water, I could see her eyes tearing up. She motioned silently for me to swim away, but I couldn't do it. I didn't know how I could live without her, and I pulled futilely at the seatbelt to try and free her._

_In the end, a tugging on my shirt forced me away. Duran had come back, pulling me forcibly to the surface. I was nearly unconscious by this time, but he carried me all the way to the shore. The last thing I remember before I passed out was him letting me lie down on the beach as he lay down beside me. He licked my face one last time, and closed his eyes._

_Duran was dead by the time any help arrived. He'd swallowed too much water. I was barely any better. I was in a coma for over a year before I was able to wake up and try to piece my life back together. The only ray of light that hit my life for a long time was when I became an Otome and bonded with my child: The armored wolf, Yafusa. The first thing he did when I summoned him for the first time was to look at me with big puppy eyes and slowly lick my face. He then wagged his tail and barked happily. My heart told me he was Duran, and I wouldn't listen to anyone tell me differently. Even in death, Duran had found a way to come back and protect me._

**November 14, 1406**

"Please don't do that," a soft voice said from behind Natsuki.

Natsuki jolted in surprise. She hadn't seen anyone else when she got here, but then again, she wasn't really paying much attention. She turned around and stood up cautiously, sparing the flower from her anger, for at least the time being. "And why shouldn't I?" she said, as she laid eyes on the girl who'd interrupted her.

A feminine figure was framed against the backdrop of cherry trees. Her long, chestnut-colored locks of hair were blown gently by a breeze of wind. She brushed a lock of hair over her ear as she said, "Beautiful flowers should be loved, since they're doing their best to bloom in their short lives."

She said it so simply, as if it were an obvious truth, but her tone made it clear that she wasn't judging Natsuki for not knowing it herself. There was just no way to argue with those words. "I... I guess," Natsuki said.

The girl took a casual step closer, giving Natsuki a soft, pleasant smile. "Would you like to tell me what would make you feel like doing that?"

"I..." Natsuki caught herself, and gritted her teeth. She'd almost blurted it all out, so easily. What was it with this girl? Why was she so... so... nice? This wasn't how things happened in her life. People didn't just come along and try to be nice and help her. There must be something else up. She shot the girl a glare and said, "None of your business."

The girl tilted her head with an understanding smile. "Forgive me," she said, taking another slow step towards Natsuki. "I just like to look at these flowers from time to time. I was simply curious why someone might want to ruin their beauty."

_Tch._ There was that word again: beauty. "Why not?" Natsuki said, perhaps a bit more harshly than the girl deserved. "The world certainly didn't have any qualms about taking away everything that was beautiful in my life! Why should I hesitate to take something back from it?"

Natsuki felt guilty as soon as those words were out of her mouth. She hated whining about her problems to others, but more so, she hated the fact that she'd just lashed out at someone who'd done nothing to her. She just didn't know how to handle people being nice. None of her instincts worked with that type of behavior. Even with Mai trying to befriend her, she was aggressive enough that Natsuki didn't feel bad about fighting back when Mai pushed too hard. But it was just inappropriate in this case.

"Ara... I see," the girl said with a soft smile.

Natsuki puzzled for a moment over the meaning of "ara," but she was mostly just relieved that the girl wasn't taking offense to her comments. In fact, she took this moment to take yet another step closer to Natsuki. She was just a few feet away now, but Natsuki didn't want to risk offending her by trying to back away.

"I guess you do have the right to take a little beauty back from the world," the girl continued, after a moment's pause. "But, if it's alright, would you please just take, not destroy?"

"What do you mean?" This girl was certainly weird, Natsuki decided, with her niceness only half of it.

The girl flashed Natsuki a smile. "The flower you were looking at earlier," she said, glossing over the details of what Natsuki was about to do to it, "isn't quite ready to be picked." Her eyes glanced upwards, and Natsuki followed her gaze to the trees above them. "But perhaps a sakura blossom would be just right..."

"Sakura?" Natsuki asked, as she looked at the cherry blossoms on the trees above them. "You mean cherry blossoms?"

"Ara, is that what you call them here?" the girl said. "These trees always remind me of my grandparents' place in Zipang. We would always come out to view the sakura trees this time of year. They truly are beautiful, aren't they?"

The girl was silent for a moment, and Natsuki realized she was expecting a response. "I guess," she said, still not sure what this girl was getting at now.

"Then they'll do," she said. She stood on her toes and reached up to pluck a blossom off of the tree. She brought it down and twirled it between her fingers for a moment, as she turned back to Natsuki and held it out. "Here. A gift of beauty, from the world, to you."

Natsuki stood stunned as she tried to process what this girl was saying. It all seemed so silly, and yet, she didn't protest. She stood silently, even as the girl brushed her hair over her ear, and gently placed the blossom in it. A warmth rising in her cheeks alerted her to a blush forming, but she was at a loss as to what to do about it. All she could do was clench her teeth for a moment as she tried to suppress the blush, and then, failing that, murmur out thanks to the girl.

"You don't need to thank me," the girl said, giving Natsuki a smile. Something in that smile was a bit different from before, as if she was trying to suppress the urge to coo over how cute Natsuki's blush was. Or perhaps that was just Natsuki's fears getting away from her. "You should thank the world. This is a gift from it. I know it's probably not nearly enough to make up for whatever you've gone through, but there is still plenty more beauty for the taking."

Finally able to form a coherent thought again, Natsuki looked into the girl's eyes – W_hat an odd shade of brown..._ she noted – and shook her head. "No, this was from you, not the world. You're the one giving this to me."

"But the world gave me to you," the girl said. There seemed to be almost a touch of nervousness in her voice, but it was soon gone. "A chance meeting like this, when you needed me. Shizuru Viola, your new... friend?" Shizuru looked at Natsuki with hopeful eyes, putting a curious inflection on the word "friend."

Natsuki stared back into the girl's eyes – red... Mikoto had mentioned: Shizuru Viola had red eyes. But they weren't frightening or off-putting, as she'd first thought when she'd heard of the girl with red eyes. They were beautiful, just like the rest of this girl. As much as Natsuki may have wanted to fight it, she was right. Life had brought Shizuru to her. A gift of beauty. Who was she to refuse it?

She was Natsuki Kruger, that's who. Her instincts were telling her to run, to get away from something she didn't understand. She didn't need Shizuru; she didn't need friends. She didn't need this uncomfortable soft feeling that was rising inside her, and all her suspicions about exactly what type of "friendship" Shizuru had in mind. She really didn't need any of that, if her suspicions were on the money.

But even more than all of that, she didn't want to run from the first good thing to happen to her in the years since the accident. She'd tried life like that. She got by, but that was it. She wasn't going to run back to it. Natsuki Kruger didn't run away. If this was what life had in store for her, she was going to face it head on.

"Natsuki," she said. "Kruger." Her cheeks had started to warm up again, but she ignored it.

"Natsuki..." Shizuru said, trying it out on her tongue. "A beautiful name. Perfect for a girl who blushes so beautifully." Of course, this only had the effect of deepening Natsuki's blush, prompting a melodic giggle from Shizuru. She forced herself to stop after a moment, though. "Forgive me, Natsuki."

Natsuki turned her head away, hoping that the reprieve from the sight of Shizuru would help her get her cheeks under control. "It's fine," she said. When even turning away didn't help her cheeks, Natsuki opted for a different tactic: distracting herself.

_Shizuru Viola... she's one of the suspects for the Crimson Maiden. Could it really be her? She seems too nice to send me a letter like that. But what she's just trying to throw me off-guard? She could have been watching me, waiting for a moment to slip into my life so she could lead me off of her tail. Still... what she said seemed too genuine. Could she really be faking all that?_

Natsuki glanced back at Shizuru, looking into her eyes for any hint of deception. She was good at spotting that; she saw it all the time in con-artists. What she saw... well, it wasn't deception. Shizuru seemed to genuinely like her – as disconcerting as that thought was – and there actually appeared to be some nervousness in her eyes. Probably more about the state of their "friendship," which Natsuki honestly wasn't sure about either. It would be hard enough to figure out the question of just what she was looking for with Shizuru even if she didn't have to worry about her being the Maiden.

"Is everything alright?" Shizuru asked. She brought a hand up to gently brush across Natsuki's cheek, prompting another blush from the girl to replace the one that had faded not five seconds ago. She was getting a pretty good idea of what Shizuru was looking for, if she was reading the signals right. That was a big "if," though. "You look rather stressed."

Natsuki brought up a hand to grab Shizuru's hand and move it away from her cheek – the blush was just getting away from her while it was in contact. She didn't push it too far away, though, for fear of hurting the girl's feelings. She just needed to be able to breathe properly again. "Yeah," she admitted once some of the blood had drained from her face and she'd caught her breath. "But it's not your problem. I can handle my own burdens."

Shizuru smiled at her, and she brought their hands down between the two girls. She'd effortlessly adapted to Natsuki's moving her hand away and made it so they were now holding hands – almost as if she'd been planning this from the beginning. She gave Natsuki a gentle squeeze at the girl's reply to let her know it was alright, and it was all Natsuki could do to not break into another blush. _Seriously, what is it with this girl? She can barely go ten seconds without doing something to make me blush!_

"Perhaps I could do something to help with your stress, at least," Shizuru offered. "I always enjoy a cup of green tea to help myself relax. There's something about tea that does that just wonderfully. It makes you slow down. You have to relax and sip it slowly, or else you'll get burned. If you want, I could help teach you how to brew tea for yourself."

Natsuki stood frozen to the ground, her mind focusing on just two things: The soft feel of Shizuru's hand in her own, and the fact that she'd just been asked on a date. It wasn't that she hadn't had people ask her out before – both boys and girls – it was that this was really about her. Everyone else who'd asked her out just liked her image; it was just a superficial attraction. Shizuru was looking right through all that, and she wasn't even thinking about running from the real Natsuki. She just kept trying to pry her way further inside.

"Er... I guess..." Natsuki said.

"Natsuki doesn't sound so sure..." Shizuru said, letting go of the girl's hand. "She doesn't have to humor me if she doesn't want to. I understand if she thinks I'm pushing her too hard..." Shizuru turned away, and Natsuki caught a glint of sunlight off of her eyes. Was she starting to tear up?

"Wait, no! It's not like that!" Natsuki protested, starting to panic. Her nervousness had hurt this girl! She couldn't let that happen. "Of course I want to have tea with you! I'm not just doing this for you, you know! I want this too!"

Shizuru's demeanor changed in the blink of an eye. She turned back to Natsuki with a huge grin on her face that nearly made the girl swoon at the beauty of it. "Ara! Natsuki is so sweet. A tea date it is then. Natsuki can meet me in club room four tomorrow at seven. I'll have everything set up for her then."

Natsuki was still stunned at the sudden change in the girl, so she didn't have a chance to protest as Shizuru leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek. With a giggle and a wave, Shizuru started to back away. Natsuki raised a hand to cover her reddening cheek just as she realized that she'd been had. "Shizuru!"

"Ara..." Shizuru smiled and winked at Natsuki. "Forgive me, Natsuki is just too cute." Natsuki's face flushed red as she tried to protest. It was too late though. With a blown kiss, Shizuru was off, leaving the red-faced girl behind, sputtering.

_What the hell have I gotten myself into?_

X-X-X

Natsuki dropped her bag to the ground as she finally got back to her room after class. It was an exhausting day, and she really needed to hit the bed for a good nap before she went out for work. Or she could just blow off work for the night... the city would wait a day for her. She was fine on funds for the time being, anyways. Besides, tracking down the Crimson Maiden was work in its own right. Perhaps until that was done, she could just revert to a more normal schedule. It would help with meeting Shizuru for tea the next day, if nothing else.

_Shizuru..._ That was really a complication in her life she didn't need right now. But it wasn't like she could say no... Shizuru was just too nice, and... well... _Maybe I just want to. What of it? I deserve a break from this life. If she can help me relax, distract me from all the crap I have to put up with, fine. It doesn't have to go any further than that._

Natsuki dropped to her bed, letting out a sigh. Mai's words from earlier were still weighing on her, but perhaps she'd been a bit unfair to the girl. She didn't really know the whole story. Of course, she'd pressed, knowing that she didn't know the whole story. Not like Shizuru, who was smart enough not to press the issue. What was with Mai, anyways? It really wasn't like her to poke at an open wound like that. She was usually more sensitive, even if she acted on her sensitivity in the most frustrating ways.

"Ugh... Stupid Mai... making me have to work for our friendship..." Natsuki grumbled as she pushed herself off of her bed and trudged over to her desk. Mai deserved to know the whole story, even if she'd never asked for it. Grabbing a pencil and some paper, Natsuki started writing.

_Mai,_

_Let me tell you about Duran. Perhaps then you'll understand and leave me alone about it..._

X-X-X

_Hey all, Ultra Detective Irina Woods here with the first official edition of "Maiden Watch." I'm going to go over detailed profiles of all our suspects in this series, as I gather enough data to do reports on them. Let's start off with the one we all know enough about to not need any research – except for Natsuki, of course. So I guess this is mostly for you, Natsuki._

_Name: Shizuru Viola_

_Age: 18_

_Year: Crystal_

_Nationality: Windbloom, though she lets her Zipang roots show_

_Profile: One of the most popular students at Garderobe, I think she's even the only one with an official fanclub. She's charming as hell, and seems to be one of the most genuinely nice people you'll ever meet. And did I mention she's drop-dead gorgeous? She's really flirtatious as well, with pretty much every girl she meets. With all this, her popularity is really no big surprise._

_She has her limits to the flirting, though. I don't think she's ever had an actual girlfriend, gone on a date, or even kissed a girl anywhere other than the forehead (one of her favorite tricks for dealing with an overenthusiastic fan). Rumor is, she's a romantic at heart, and she's waiting until she finds exactly what she wants. If that weren't the case, I imagine she'd have slept with half the student body by now._

_Her only "flaw," if you can call it that, is her addiction to tea. She can't seem to go more than 15 minutes without a cup. Of course, given how beautiful she looks sipping her tea, it's hardly a problem. It just makes her all the more attractive to her fans._

_Favorite word: "Ara." It's Zipango for "oh," but she tends to overuse it. It just sounds so sexy coming out of her lips, though, that no one minds._

_Bonded Child: Kiyohime, the princess-hydra_

_Fighting style: Evasive. She has to keep that beauty untarnished, doesn't she? She's a very mobile fighter, using spells to keep herself airborne when necessary, as she peppers her opponent with quick spells and hits from her Element. She's one of the few Crystals to have really personalized and mastered her Element so far. It's a pair of katanas, which she keeps rotating in the air around her body as a passive barrier when she isn't using them. In addition to wielding one or both of them as just blades, she can also attach the two together at the hilts as a double-katana, or break the blades up into something like a whip. It's seriously frightening what she can do with those._

_Why she might be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-Red eyes and breast size match the Maiden's._

_-Rumor is, she's a closet lecher. This would let her indulge that side of herself without tarnishing her image._

_-Definitely strong enough in battle, though she would have to give up a lot of her trademark moves, such as her Element use._

_Why she might not be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-She seems too nice. It's hard to imagine her sending a letter that could be considered harassment. She's always too careful about how she treats her fangirls._

_-She doesn't really need to do this. If she wanted to, she could take almost any girl in the school to bed. She could even do tons of kinky things to most of them if she just asked. Only explanation I can think of is if she's worried about tarnishing her image._

_-She seems a bit too restrained with her behavior. If she won't go past a kiss on the forehead with her fangirls, would she do all the Maiden has done? The Maiden does have her own limits, though, so it might still be possible. I don't think I've heard of the Maiden kissing anyone, though we'll have to wait on Sara's full report for that._

_Suspicion level: High. She's one of my top couple suspects right now, along with Nao. There are a few inconsistencies, but nothing I can't really explain away. Certainly worth keeping a close eye on her._

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** Don't think I'll reset the poll this time. Maybe I'll leave it open for two chapters at a time, and you can just let me know of any changes in opinion in your reviews.


	6. What May Come in Dreams

**Author's Note:** Poll results for last two chapters:

Shizuru - 30

Nao - 4

Midori - 3

Mai - 3

More than one person - 1

Other - 1

Haruka - 0

Rather dense chapter here, with lots of background. I promise we'll get to the "date" next chapter. ;)

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 5:** What May Come in Dreams

X-X-X

_I think I might have inadvertently gained a fanclub today. I blame it all on Shizuru, of course. She was the one who put that cherry – no, scratch that, sakura – blossom in my hair, so it's entirely her fault when I forgot all about it and went off to class with it still in there. She was doing everything she could to distract me after that point as well; it's no wonder I forgot about it until I saw myself in the bathroom mirror._

_My first thought there was something along the lines of, "Awww! That's so cute!" My second thought was, "Wait, did I just call myself cute? What kind of narcissist am I?" My third thought was, "Wait, is that why so many girls were cooing at me today? Maybe it wasn't just my imagination." At this point I had to grab the blossom out of my hair lest I go insane. My final thought on the blossom was, "Phew, at least I didn't damage it there. Shizuru might like it if I wear it for our date tomorrow."_

_At this point I charged out of the bathroom and shoved the sakura blossom into the drawer in my bedside table, safely out of my sight and grasp. I couldn't trust myself not to crush it in my hand when my thoughts got to Shizuru. I was already blushing like hell._

**November 14, 1406**

"Oi, Shiho! You in there?" Mai called as she banged on her classmate's door. She'd learned from hard experience that the girl could be a heavy sleeper, with a very erratic schedule on top of that. More than once she'd ended up giving up on their meetings, figuring that Shiho wasn't in, only to find out that she just hadn't banged on the door hard enough to wake her up. She wouldn't let that happen today, though. She was going to keep this up until she got a response, even delivering vocal notes to Shiho if necessary, common courtesy be damned.

Fortunately for Shiho, it didn't come to that. She opened her door just as Mai was about to start banging again and glared up at the girl. "You don't have to yell, you know." She backed up from the door and gestured Mai in. She was already in her channeler's robes, which meant that she was either awake and getting prepared for their meeting, or she'd fallen asleep during a trance earlier that day.

Shiho tended to be a bit on the strange side, even among students who specialized in channeling. She was one of the few students who'd gotten a room to herself during her Coral year, mostly because she drove her roommates crazy with incessant spinning of her focuses in the middle of the night. Shiho was absolutely convinced that the world ran on a spiral, and the more she turned, the more in tune she'd get. It was just fortunate for other students at Garderobe that her attempts to drain their spiralness for her own benefit never showed any success.

But if you looked past her incessant spiraling in her spare time, Shiho was arguably the most talented channeler in Garderobe. That was why Mai wasn't trying to kill herself over the fact that she'd volunteered to help with her required practice now that she knew what Shiho could be like. Eccentric or not, the girl got results. Most of the time, at least.

"I need to talk with S today," Mai said. "Her advice just got Natsuki mad at me, and I felt horrible doing it. It was like she had me pouring salt on an open wound. I need to know what's up."

Shiho nodded as she started setting up candlesticks in a circle in the middle of her room. "That's strange," she said. "Spirits aren't supposed to make mistakes like that. Are you sure you didn't handle it wrong? Or maybe did you get S mad at you, so she wanted to lie?"

"There wasn't much to get wrong," Mai said. She flicked her fingers to conjure a small flame in them and started lighting up the candles around the ritual circle. "All she said was, 'Press Natsuki about using a Child other than Duran.' I did that, and only succeeded in making her mad at me. I don't know if S might be lying, though. You heard everything we talked about; she didn't sound mad at all, did she?"

"Guess not," Shiho said with a grunt. She bent down to start sketching out her ritual circle on the floor with a conjured piece of chalk. "Want me to throw up a circle of truth? If we catch her in a lie this time, I can maki-maki her spirit back to whatever plane she comes from, with a few added twists for good measure."

"Heh, no, that's not necessary," Mai said. She snapped her fingers to extinguish the flame between them. "I'm sure S wasn't lying. She seems to really like Natsuki. She always seems to be a bit more cheerful when we talk about her. Maybe she's a relative or something."

"Could be, I guess," Shiho said. "The spirits willing to talk and help out are usually ones that are interested in what's going on around you. Though for all I know she could be a relative of a parallel Natsuki in some other plane. Or hell, she could be a parallel Natsuki herself, and the S is just to throw us off. Now can we do this, already? I need to get some breakfast soon."

Mai almost reminded Shiho that it was 4 pm., but she caught herself. It wasn't worth the trouble. She hit the light switch on the nearby wall so that the room was illuminated solely by the candles they'd set up. "Alright, I'm ready when you are," Mai said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall, across from Shiho.

Shiho nodded as she stood in the center of the ritual circle. She fished around in her robes for a minute, eventually pulling out her flute. Shiho pointed her flute straight upwards as she started muttering an incantation. The ritual circle she'd drawn out on the floor dissolved into the air, the chalk metamorphosing into solid light around her feet. As Shiho switched to a different spell, the flames of the candles around her flared up, spewing out smoke which soon enveloped the room. The smoke caught the light from both the circle and the candles, holding it and keeping it from dissipating. Images of both Mai and Shiho danced around the room, captured and reflected by the magically-infused smoke.

When the atmosphere was just right, Shiho brought her flute down to her mouth and began to play out a haunting melody. As she played, the reflections in the smoke began to take on more otherworldly shapes, until they barely resembled Mai and Shiho at all. They were twisted, inhuman. Mai spotted what looked like a few Childs among them, and just a few humanoid shapes. Eventually, one of the humanoid shapes took on greater detail. It grew in front of Shiho, filling in the smoke with a flesh-colored haze.

Twin lights appeared on the head of the figure, and the features of a face began to take form. Shimmering strands grew from its head, giving the impression of hair. The figure was still a far cry from looking human, but at least it wasn't disconcerting to look at at this point. It could be imagined to be how you might see a person through heavily blurred vision – assuming you accepted the lack of clothes, the glowing hair, and the golden sparks for eyes.

A ghost of a smile appeared on the figure's face. "Hello, Mai," it said. The voice resonated throughout the room, as if the wisps of smoke were echoing it around. It was still noticeably feminine, even if it was highly distorted.

"Hello, S," Mai said. "How are things in the aft... er, in your plane?" She had to stop herself from saying "afterlife." She'd gotten a stern lecture about that last time she'd used that reference. According to S, the dead were typically reincarnated some time in the future, with their spirits jumping ahead to the moment of their rebirth. The plane she existed on was for spirits who had a strong tie to life and wanted to hang on a bit longer, along with spirits created by other means – ideas powerful enough that they gained form in that plane, such as most gods people worshiped, or archetypes of personality which merged with the spirits of animals to become Childs. The most confusing part was that those spirits weren't even tied to the worlds they were native to, though S didn't elaborate too much on what other worlds she might know about.

Humans, as they were, were always slow to change, so even these revelations that came from spirits channeled in Garderobe did little to sway their religions and culture. It was still early yet, scarcely a decade since the first student had managed to speak with one of these spirits, and so the world was still in a bit of disbelief. Many, like Mai, hadn't even heard of this until she got to Garderobe herself. Perhaps she could change things when she got back to Zipang.

"Always interesting," S said, with a hint of a grin on her face. "Though the details would be far too difficult to translate into words. Tell me though, what would you like to discuss today?"

"Natsuki again," Mai said. She'd been anticipating a reaction from S at the sound of Natsuki's name, and she wasn't disappointed. In addition to the smile that split across her face, her physical features also noticeably changed. Her eyes, which had previously been golden sparks within her face, had switched to an emerald glow, and her hair had similarly turned from golden to black with just a hint of a blue glow about it. When Mai had first seen this display, she'd thought it was S mimicking Natsuki for some reason, but perhaps if she was a relative, this was in fact closer to her own previous appearance.

"Natsuki..." S said with a light purr. "How is she doing?"

"Bad," Mai said simply. S's eyes flared red briefly at this news, but they quickly went back to green. "I followed your advice and pressed her about Duran, but it just got her angry at me and caused her to blow up. I felt horrible doing it as well."

S was silent for a moment, her expression frozen in place. For nearly a minute, there was no sign from her, only the soft sounds of Shiho's flute playing in the background. Eventually, S seemed to focus again. "Natsuki seems quite happy now. It seems your words led her to happiness after all."

"Is that so?" Mai said with a glare at the spirit in front of her. "Even if you're right, I still don't like it. It's too manipulative. It doesn't feel right to manipulate my friends, especially when I'm hurting her like that."

Another moment of silence from S. "I understand," she said. "But if it's any consolation, it does seem she's quite happy right now, at least as far as I can tell. Perhaps it would be best if you confessed to her what you were doing."

Mai furrowed her brow at the spirit. "Is this more of your spiritual prophesies? I've had enough, thanks, even if this sounds more reasonable."

"No, not this time," S said with a soft smile. "Just friendly advice. You may take it as you wish."

"Hmph. Alright then," Mai said.

"Is there anything else you would like to talk about today?" S said. Her eyes and hair faded back to their normal golden color. "I believe we still have a few more minutes to fulfill Shiho's practice requirements, if my sense of time is working today."

"Alright," Mai said. She spent a moment thinking about what to ask, but given the events of the day the proper question was obvious. "Can you tell me who the Crimson Maiden is? That is, the student who masquerades as the Crimson Maiden in her duels with other students. Do you know about her?"

"Yes," S said. "I know of her, but I can't say who she is unfortunately. I have to respect her privacy."

"Privacy!" Mai spat. "She's been harassing Natsuki. She doesn't deserve the luxury of privacy if it enables her to act like that."

"Natsuki..." S's eyes flared red again for a moment, and her expression seemed to freeze in place once more. Mai waited as the spirit was off searching for information, however she did that. She was soon back, and her eyes softened back to their earlier gold color. "I'm sorry... It looks like someone has protected that information. I can't see through her spell."

"Just great," Mai grumbled. "Not too surprising I guess. No reason she should make this easy on us."

"Perhaps though..." S said, and she was off again. She was gone for a good few minutes this time, and Mai was considering telling Shiho that they could give up for the day when S finally got back. "Yes, I can still help you. Her spell only shields her identity and present actions. If you wish, I could tell you a story about her past. With a little effort, I was able to learn the story of her origins as the Crimson Maiden, though everything since then is blocked off to me."

"You can?" Mai said. "And you aren't worried about her privacy?"

S's eyes flashed green again. "I still can't give you her name, you know. But if she's hurt Natsuki, then I will do all I can to help."

X-X-X

_You can do this, Yukino,_ she told herself as she stood in the hallway, trying to get her courage up before she knocked on her friend's door. _You can be strong on your own. You got respect from everyone today just on your own knowledge, without any help from Haruka, didn't you? You're good enough for her. You just need to let her know you feel about her that way, and she can decide if she feels the same way._

_What's the worst that could happen? Haruka's a good friend. She values loyalty over almost everything else. Even if she can't return your feelings, she'll do everything she can to help maintain your friendship with her. Maybe even support you in getting over her. So worst case, you're back to where you started, but with the ability to maybe find someone else someday. Best case? Well that's obvious..._

Yukino's cheeks started to warm up slightly as she considered actually being in a relationship with Haruka. She could handle it now, she knew. A burst of courage hit her, and she reached her hand up to knock on Haruka's door before it faded. _Alright, now just say it. Get the words out, then make your intentions clear when she asks. It's just important that you get it out, so there's no going back._

"Ah, Yukino!" Haruka said as she opened up the door, a grin on her face. _She's in a good mood, perfect._ "What's up?"

"Hi, Haruka," Yukino said. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pushed forwards. "I was wondering if you'd like to go out for a dinn- Eeyah!"

A flash of brown and red slammed into Yukino, roughly shoving her aside. "Make way! Sorry sorry! Deadline! Professssoooorrrr! Waaaaiiiit uuuuup!"

Yukino stood stunned, only belatedly realizing that she'd nearly fallen over and was now only being held up by Haruka. _I was so close! It's not fair!_

"What the hell is wrong with that girl!?" Haruka demanded into the hallway, getting only a few shrugs from various students who had similarly been trampled. "Are you alright, Yukino?" she asked as she looked down to the girl in her arms.

"Um..." Yukino said. Physically, she was fine. But her courage had been ruined, and to make things worse she was now caught awkwardly by Haruka's arms in way that she really wished could have been romantic. "I... I think." Giving Haruka a thankful pat on the shoulder, she maneuvered herself back to her feet and out of Haruka's arms.

"Are you sure?" Haruka said, eying Yukino up and down. "You look pretty shaken. I can take you to the nurse if you'd like."

"No... no," Yukino said. "I'm fine, really. Just a bit stunned, no injuries." She looked up at her friend and gave the strongest smile she could, shoving down all her worries for the time being.

"Alright then," Haruka said. "But still! Let me treat you to dinner. It's the least I can do for you after that. Besides, it was what you came here to ask, right? If I wanted to go out a grab some dinner with you?"

"Yeah, Haruka..." Yukino said, forcing a smile. _ A dinner date I was hoping... but I'll take it._

"Yukino!" Yukino turned her head to find Akane jogging down the hallway towards her and Haruka. When she reached them, she placed a hand against the wall as she tried to catch her breath. "Did you see... Midori... come by here?"

"Midori!" Haruka said. "I should have known it was her! That dilettante came barreling down this hallway and nearly trampled right over Yukino!"

"Delinquent, Haruka," Yukino corrected her friend.

"That's what I said!" Haruka protested. "But you!" She turned back to Akane. "What was that dilettante doing like that? And how are you involved with her? You'd better be straight with me or I'll have the full force of the disciplinary committee come down on the both of you!"

Yukino could tell from Akane's expression that she was fighting the urge to sigh and roll her eyes at Haruka. It was a common reaction among people who weren't used to her. At least she wasn't getting too put off, as happened to some of the newer students who got on the wrong side of Haruka. She'd had to step in to help cool Haruka down in a couple of those cases, which she actually didn't mind so much, given how adorably her friend reacted.

"I'm really sorry about that, Haruka," Akane said, with a small bow. She'd had experience with Haruka before, it looked like. "I told her I could help her out with her archeology project, and she went running off to tell the professor that she'd finally found a student to help her out. Apparently the deadline is today – she'd given up before I approached her, and then she just went wild. Again, I'm really sorry, especially to Yukino."

"Oh..." Apologizing, particularly for others' actions, always tended to throw Haruka off. She was much better at confrontations. "Well, you should know better than to get involved with that type! She's too reckless, and she has no respect for hard work! If her parents weren't threatening to pull her funds if she flunked, she'd just spend every night drinking instead of doing her work, which she practically does anyways."

"You're right, I'm sorry, Haruka," Akane said with another bow. "My advisor just told me that I needed to get involved with a history project if I wanted to get a minor in Scholarship. At this late stage, Midori's was the only project that still had an opening." Akane's eyes shot to Yukino briefly as she said this, with the unspoken message that that wasn't the only reason she'd gotten involved with Midori.

"Well, that's what you get for putting things off till the last minute," Haruka said. "Now you'd better go and make sure your partner hasn't hurt anyone else in her stampede. I'll see about getting the Disciplinary Committee to come down on her for this. You just try to keep her under control as best as you can."

"Okay," Akane said with a nod. "I'll do that. Thank you, Haruka. See you later, Yukino."

"Now!" Haruka said as Akane ran off, a grin spreading on her face. "I believe I promised you dinner, Yukino."

"Yeah..." Yukino smiled. "Thanks, Haruka."

X-X-X

_Natsuki shivered as a cool breeze blew across her bare flesh. Her Robe had been reduced to mere scraps now, which barely served the function of undergarments. The Crimson Maiden eyed her hungrily, standing barely an inch away from her now. Natsuki shivered under her gaze, and she tried to bring her arms around to cover her body, sparing herself some dignity, but some force she couldn't see was keeping them pinned to her sides._

_Natsuki glared at the Maiden. She wasn't surrendering, even if she was defeated in battle. The Maiden could take her body if she wished, but she would never get the satisfaction of taking Natsuki's spirit. She didn't really seem to care though. From the look in her eyes, she had some special kink for Natsuki, possibly even because of her resistance. It didn't matter though. She couldn't win over Natsuki like this._

_Natsuki still wished she'd won, but hopefully she could still win a moral victory by resisting the Maiden's charms for the next two hours. It shouldn't be hard. There was nothing Natsuki found arousing about the current situation. The Maiden certainly tried, though, taking things slowly, as Natsuki might have appreciated, were the circumstances different. She approached Natsuki slowly and started tracing her fingers over Natsuki's body with feather-light caresses._

_The Maiden stopped when her body was mere inches from Natsuki's, and she caught her captive's eyes. She tilted her head to the side and leaned in, bringing her lips closer and closer to Natsuki's. Natsuki glared back at the Maiden and spitefully curled her lips inside her mouth. Even if she couldn't stop the Maiden from kissing her, she was giving nothing in return._

_The Maiden's eyes shot open wide and she let out a strangled gasp. She collapsed in front of Natsuki, revealing a bloodied katana behind her. Tracing up the blade with her eyes, Natsuki came upon the sight of her savior, who somehow looked every bit as sweet as she had when they'd first met, despite the sword in her hands._

"_Please do not worry, Natsuki," Shizuru said, smiling serenely. The sword vanished from her hands, along with the fallen Maiden. "I'm here to help you now."_

_Natsuki took a moment to get over the shock and try to wrap her mind around what was happening. She was dreaming, it had to be. Well, at least this dream wasn't nearly as disturbing as the one where she'd gone along with the Maiden's desires. "Shizuru...?" she said. "Why are you here?" They only had one date, should she really be dreaming about Shizuru this soon?_

_Shizuru tilted her head to the side. "Natsuki needed me," she said. "So I'm here." Shizuru looked around the area a bit, at what appeared to be various scenes from Natsuki's memory playing out on the walls. "Ara... it seems to be quite nice here. I think I might have to stay around for a while, if Natsuki doesn't mind. I'll make sure to keep her dreams safe, and I'll be her for her if she needs to talk." Shizuru tilted her head again and gave a sweet smile. "Does that sound good?"_

_Natsuki stared at the image of Shizuru, blinking in confusion. "Um, what are you?"_

"_Ara, isn't it obvious?" Shizuru said with a wink. "I'm your dream Shizuru."_

"_...Oh."_

_Shizuru strolled slowly up to Natsuki. "I've been watching you for a while, but I didn't want to show up until you'd met the real Shizuru, so you wouldn't be too confused. I guess it might be best if you think of me as a visiting spirit. When you sleep, I can come here to help you out, but otherwise I'll be back with my own Natsuki in her world."_

"_Um..." Natsuki said. She tried to circle around everything this vision was saying to her in her mind, to make some better sense of it. Another Natsuki in another world? "Am I going crazy here?"_

"_Ara... I'm sorry, Natsuki. I'm probably just confusing you here. Just think of me as your spirit guide, okay?" With the way Shizuru gazed back at Natsuki so sweetly, with nothing but affection in her eyes, it was hard not to trust her. Natsuki gave a slow nod to the girl before her. Shizuru clapped her hands together gleefully at this. "Ara! Thank you, Natsuki. I'll be sure to do everything I can to help you unmask and defeat the Crimson Maiden. And if you see Mai, just let her know that S says 'hi'. You're quite lucky to have a friend like her, you know? You can trust her to help you out as well."_

"_Er... right," Natsuki said. "Thanks then... I guess."_

_Shizuru leaned forward to plant a kiss on Natsuki's cheek. Somehow, even though she was dreaming, Natsuki could still feel the kiss clear as day, along with the blush that formed on her cheeks in response to it. "Anything for Natsuki. Now, wakey-wakey, sleepyhead!"_

X-X-X

_Hey all, Mai here this time. I did some talking with spirits today, and was able to get us some more information on the Crimson Maiden. She apparently has some spell up to shield her identity and all current actions, but I was able to get information on what she was up to before assuming the identity of the Crimson Maiden. So, I present to you all: the story of the Crimson Maiden._

_Around a year ago, a student had an unreciprocated crush on one of her upperclassmen. I don't know the names of the two girls, but let's call the younger one "Coral" and the older one "Pearl," as I believe those were their years at the time. Anyways, Coral did all she could to get the attention of Pearl, but she could never manage to stand out from the crowd. She was just never good with romance, and none of her signals were picked up, as they weren't the sort of signals Pearl could have possibly identified._

_Eventually, Coral gave up with being subtle about things and went for a more direct approach. She built up her courage and sent a message directly to Pearl, asking her for a date. Pearl wasn't interested in her, so she turned her down politely. She didn't want to make Coral feel too awkward, though, and she made an effort to treat her just as she always did._

_But by this point, Coral was hopelessly infatuated, and this just frustrated her more. She was able to get Pearl alone, and she complained that she wasn't being given a fair chance. Pearl shouldn't just dismiss her before she'd gotten to know her better. She should try at least one date before making up her mind. Pearl just said that she didn't feel any real chemistry between them, and she didn't think that would change._

_As a last-ditch attempt, Coral challenged Pearl to a duel. If Coral won, Pearl would indulge her in one date. If Pearl won, then Coral would let the whole matter drop, along with another forfeit that Pearl could decide. At this point, Pearl was more than willing to go along just so she could get Coral to let the matter drop, so she agreed. She didn't see any real chance of losing, as she had a year of experience on Coral, so it was a safe choice, and it would probably amount to less effort than dealing with more of Coral's advances._

_When the day of the duel came, Pearl was in for a bit of a surprise. Coral had come wearing an incredibly sexy outfit – possibly enhanced with a minor glamour – and Pearl couldn't help but be a little effected by it. Pearl hadn't realized that Coral could be quite that attractive, so her libido was ignited by the sight._

_Coral seized the moment. She taunted Pearl over her reaction. I imagine she said something like, "You want this, don't you? Well, you can have it." She approached Pearl and stroked her face. Her plan actually seemed to be working for once, and her courage was up to push through with it before Pearl could get ahold of herself. "But I want you too, you know. So let's raise the stakes. I win, then I get you. You win, then you get me."_

_Pearl's libido was still running on full, and the proposal had stoked a fire within her. She certainly had her kinks, and at that moment, the chance of fulfilling them with a sexy girl who was at her mercy sounded just too good to resist. And so she accepted. Of course, she ended up winning the duel, though Coral certainly put up a good fight. Not that Coral minded losing. Either way, she got what she wanted – getting to be with Pearl._

_However, by this point Pearl's libido had cooled down, and she was more than a bit angry when she found out that Coral wasn't being entirely genuine when she set up the stakes so that she'd enjoy losing. In spite, she told Coral that she was done with her. She was choosing not to take her prize. Coral could go and make her perverted deals with someone else._

_The fact that she was still rejected hit Coral hard. It finally got through to her that Pearl just wasn't interested in her that way, and she never would be. She was, however, more confident about herself. She was able to make Pearl react when she tried, so she could do that to other girls as well, hopefully with more luck in the end._

_And that's about where the shielding spell sets in, so I can't say any more for sure. I'm not even sure which of the two ended up being the Maiden. If it was Pearl, then she probably got the idea from there that she could act out her fantasies on other girls if she proposed such a duel, and perhaps Coral's outfit gave her the idea to do it in disguise as the Crimson Maiden. On the other hand, if Coral became the Maiden, then she used her newfound courage to go out and get other girls, using a more refined version of the outfit she'd come up with to disguise herself._

_Now, looking at our current suspects list... I'd be a bit cautious to rule anyone out from that, though Midori seems a bit less likely. The role of Pearl just doesn't seem like her, though it could still be either Shizuru or Haruka, from what we know of them. And Nao could still be Coral... I don't see her too much as the type to have an uncontrollable crush, though I guess love hits everyone sometime, and she does seem like she'd have trouble controlling it._

_Well, hopefully this will help you all. Till next time, Mai out._

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** New poll up! Let your guesses for the Maiden be known.


	7. Tea for Two

**Author's Note:** Poll results for last chapter:

Shizuru - 18

Nao - 8

Undecided/Unsure - 6

Other - 5

More than one person - 1

Midori - 0

Mai - 0

Haruka - 0

Sorry for the wait in this chapter, everyone. I don't know if it has been longer than is typical for me these days, but it feels like it. :P Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Thanks to Kampilan for betaing this chapter. I could still use a more permanent beta to help me out, so let me know if you're interested.

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 6:** Tea for Two

X-X-X

_Why do I feel like my life is getting completely out of hand? Well, perhaps because it is. As if dealing with the Crimson Maiden's advances weren't enough, now I've got a date, and the girl I'm dating is appearing in my dreams as my "spirit guide." I wish I could just run from it all... curl up in a whole and avoid life. But I can't do that. Natsuki Kruger doesn't run, even if she might suck at this kind of thing._

_Besides... that girl, Shizuru... She seems nice. And the way she makes me feel... Gah, I can't be liking her this early. It's just hormones, that's all. And it's just a date. After the date, then I can figure it all out. Until then: School. And if I find myself daydreaming about Shizuru during it, someone please shoot me._

**November 15, 1406**

Natsuki opened her door to find Sara waiting for her. "Are you here to shoot me?" she grumbled.

Sara's eyes widened. "Um... no? You asked me to come and talk yesterday?"

"Right, I know," Natsuki said, backing up to allow Sara to enter her room. "Sorry 'bout that. Just frustrated with myself."

"Oh," Sara said. She hesitated at the doorway, not coming in just yet. "Should I come back at another time then?"

Natsuki grunted as she sat down on her bed. "It's fine. Come on, take a seat. Let's chat. It'll help to get my mind off of the more frustrating things in my life."

Sara was still a bit put off by Natsuki's reaction, but after a moment of reflection she seemed to come to some realization which helped her accept it. Natsuki had to bite her tongue to keep from asking what that realization was, as it was sure to just remind her of something else she had to be frustrated about. "Alright, I guess," Sara said as she came into the room and grabbed a seat at Natsuki's desk. "So... you're in the Project too, I take it? Yamada never told me he had any other students working for him."

"Yeah..." Natsuki said. "Kinda makes me wonder how many others he might have under him. Though most kids here seem to have regular jobs, so it's probably just a handful. Of course, Yamada won't even tell me how many people he does have working under him, so who knows?"

"Heh," Sara said. "So did you have trouble trusting him at first? The whole thing seems unnecessarily shady to me, but it's hard to argue that the work we're doing is helping out. A while back I actually went and snooped by the prisons to confirm that. Yep, the guys I caught were in there. Don't know how much of a due process they got, though, which is what really worries me. What's to stop someone in our position from making false arrests just for the bounties? It's not like Yamada has us gather evidence on the people we turn in."

"Well yeah," Natsuki said. "Though I suspect they might have an Otome working for them at some level – possibly a channeler who could determine for sure who was guilty and who wasn't once they were picked up. There are quite a few Otome in the employ of the Windbloom government, and who knows if any of their official jobs is just a cover for their work for the Project?" Natsuki leaned back on her bed and stretched out her arms for a moment. She was too used to taking a nap at this time of the afternoon. Hopefully, focusing on the conversation would help keep her awake, and then tea would do the rest when she met up with Shizuru.

"I guess that could be it," Sara said. She got up from her chair and started strolling around Natsuki's room, taking it in. It didn't take too long though, as Natsuki wasn't really one for flair. "Though I'd prefer to know for sure for myself. I'll have to press Yamada on it, see if he can confirm anything."

"Heh, sounds good," Natsuki said. She stifled the urge to let out a yawn by pushing forward into the subject she'd had in mind when she'd asked Sara to come see her. "Anyways, one thing I wanted to talk to you about. I've got a lead on a big job, but I've had to sit on it as there was just no way I could pull it off on my own. Can't just ask Yamada for help, as the only way I could figure out to pull it off would require the help of another Otome."

"Really?" Sara said. She paused in her pacing and turned to face Natsuki. "What could be that big for the famed Kruger to need help?"

Natsuki pushed herself off of her bed and gave Sara a wry smirk. "Something that's best discussed in private, before anything else. Can't risk anyone listening in to this." Natsuki walked around the corners of her room, muttering out a shielding spell to cover herself and Sara. She added in a clause to it to cover the current subject after she and Sara left the room, hoping that it would work out. The Crimson Maiden had managed to do it, and the mechanics didn't appear too complicated, so hopefully this would work out.

"Aren't the dorms already covered by a privacy shield?" Sara asked.

"Yeah, but it's a piece of crap," Natsuki said, continuing the spellcast with her hands as she talked. "It only blocks the most rudimentary scrying spells. I figured out a half-dozen ways to get around it my Coral year. Never had to use any of them, though. Not my thing to spy on my friends in the shower, as I'm sure was the initial reason for setting up the shields."

Sara was silent for a minute as she took this in. "Heh, I guess. So tell me, what's the deal here?"

Natsuki finished up with casting her shield, and the room was briefly covered by a pale yellow light. "A rogue Otome," She said, dropping back down to her bed. "Who, if my leads are correct, is enabling a good chunk of Windbloom's criminal underworld through her prophecies. She's responsible for more crime than most gangs in the city, even if she never gets her hands dirty."

"...Oh," Sara said. She took a moment to process this information. "But wait, I was told when I entered Garderobe that I wouldn't be able to use any magic off of campus until I graduated and was certified as a Meister. Are we dealing with a rogue Meister here?"

"I doubt it," Natsuki said. "Garderobe is pretty good about making sure only the right girls get certified, and then it keeps pretty close tabs on all active Meisters, so it would be pretty unlikely for one to go rogue like this. Besides, the evidence just doesn't seem to point to a Meister here. Much more likely it's a student, actually. Tell me, Sara, do you know what a hotspot is?"

"'Hotspot'? No... doesn't ring a bell."

"Heh, not surprised," Natsuki said. "It's not exactly something Garderobe would want students to know about. Alright, well the thing is, when we're on campus, we're able to use magic because of what they call Shinso, right? Shinso is the spirit of one of the first Otome, tied to a powerful artifact of some sort that they keep at the center of campus. It projects a field of 'mana' that gives us the power to perform magic.

"When an Otome graduates and is certified as a Meister, she's given a Gem that holds a connection back to Shinso. It channels power to her wherever she is, so she can perform magic off of campus. Now, those are the authorized uses for us, and the only ones Garderobe would like students to know about. Catch is, there are also hotspots – random places in the world where a bubble of mana pops up and Otome can use magic."

Sara nodded. "Okay, I think I'm following you. So did you find a hotspot then? Is that why you suspect it's a student?"

"Exactly," Natsuki said. "Only catch is, the hotspot seems to be mobile. I found it in different places on different nights as this Otome – she calls herself the Oracle – relocated. In my research on hotspots, they all seemed to be stationary. Apparently they happen at 'intersections of ley lines' or some crap like that. Shinso was brought to where a huge bundle of them intersected, helping to amplify the power of the local hotspot. My best guess is, if an artifact like the one that holds Shinso can help to create the huge field over Garderobe, perhaps one like it could generate a hotspot on its own."

Sara's eyes widened as Natsuki said this. "This certainly is big. Recovering an artifact like that from a criminal... could you imagine the payout? We'd be set for life if they give us a tenth what it's worth." Sara mulled this over for a couple seconds before letting out a sigh. "But I don't think we're likely to get that much. It would still be huge, though."

"You're telling me," Natsuki said. "A criminal who's done everything the Oracle has on top of that, and we're looking at a hefty sum. Of course, it isn't going to be simple. This Oracle has been working out of this particular hotspot for so long that it's been completely attuned to her magic. My own magic was severely damped in it – it was all I could do just to detect the extent of the hotspot. I did some more researched, and found a spell that could neutralize the field so that I could use my magic in it as well. Only problem is that it requires that you channel it constantly for it to be in effect – at least until you've done it long enough to permanently neutralize the field. I tried that tactic at first, but the Oracle caught on to what I was doing and blasted me away with some sort of spell before I was done."

Sara nodded at this and considered it for a moment before letting out a grunt. "So let me guess: You just need me to provide a warm body to neutralize the hotspot while you do all the fun work inside?"

"Heh, well that's Plan A, at least," Natsuki said, scratching the back of her neck and smirking. "But I need someone I can trust for if things don't go so well. And given that this Oracle is a channeler, we can expect her to have some inkling that we're coming after her, even despite my shield. Or if she's a Crystal, I might not be able to take her out on my own in any case. In that case, my backup plan is to just try to blast her outside of the hotspot somehow, and then the two of us can try to capture her without magic. A lot more risk of her escaping that way, so I need someone capable to back me up."

"Aha, I see," Sara said. "I guess I could help you out with that then. Do you have any leads on who the Oracle might be?"

"Not many," Natsuki said. "She's been pretty secretive. I haven't been able to get even a glimpse of her, and the guys I caught who told me about her just said she always kept her face concealed and her voice distorted. So there's no chance of us tracking her down outside her hotspot without more information, really."

"Huh..." Sara said. She spent a couple minutes pacing around the room as she went over this. "Does it feel at all to you like we're being railroaded to do exactly this? It seems like the Oracle has covered every other possibility here. How do you know this isn't a trap?"

Natsuki shrugged. "Can't be completely sure, but I doubt it. The spell I found to neutralize the hotspot was pretty obscure. I doubt the Oracle would know about it and count on me figuring it out to lay a trap for me – whatever she might hope to gain from it. But, even if that is the case, I still do have one last ace up my sleeve."

"Oh really?" Sara raised an eyebrow.

Natsuki let out a soft grunt. "Not a chance."

Sara rolled her eyes. "Fine, be that way. Honestly I'm surprised you're talking as much as you are. I half-expected you were a mute up till yesterday."

Natsuki narrowed her eyes and glared at Sara. She did not need another reminder of how out of character she'd been acting recently. Her mind just wouldn't shut up about it, particularly with regards to the date she'd somehow managed to get. _Wait, the date! _Natsuki turned her head over to check the clock. _6:47 already, shit!_

Natsuki turned back to Sara. "Right, uh, sorry. Got something I need to get ready for now. Talk later, okay?"

X-X-X

_Okay... Okay, I can do this. Just take a second to breathe, get my heart to stop pounding, and get that stupid blush out of my cheeks so she won't tease me about it. Or I could just go back to my room and send her a message saying I changed my mind. But that would be running! Er, but what if I just don't want it, then it's not running? Well maybe, if I can find a way to justify my obsession with her that isn't just, "I think I like her and I felt chemistry with her." Which is then just an excuse to run, so I'll still be running..._

"Um, sorry, excuse me..." a girl peeped as she pushed past Natsuki and opened the door to the club room in front of her.

Natsuki stood stunned. _What the hell!? I have a date here!_ She watched as the girl walked into the room and said hello to Shizuru, who was standing at the front desk. Shizuru smiled at the girl, and her head turned over towards Natsuki just as the door closed shut.

When the door opened in front of Natsuki five seconds later, she was about ready to explode. "Ara, Natsuki! You made it." Shizuru said with a beaming smile on her face that momentarily disarmed Natsuki.

Shizuru was lucky that Natsuki was thrown off-guard by her greeting, as instead of an explosion, Natsuki toned it down to a low hiss. "What the hell is going on here? Why is that other girl here!?"

Now it was Shizuru's turn to stand stunned for a few moments. Eventually she furrowed her brow and said, "I thought Natsuki understood that this was a club meeting here. Everyone in school seems to know that I'm the President of the Tea Club, and we have our meetings in here. I thought that Natsuki might feel less pressured in a group setting for our first date..."

Natsuki gritted her teeth, but she tried to give Shizuru a chance. The nervousness in her eyes looked genuine enough, but she'd been fooled by her before. "Is that true? Or is this just another game you're playing with me to see how I'll react? I'm not just a toy you can wind up to enjoy my reactions, you know!"

Fortunately for Shizuru's continued well-being, she looked genuinely abashed. With just a slight nervous tremble in her voice, she said, "I'm sorry, Natsuki. I should have made it clearer to you that you would be joining the Tea Club here, at least at first. I did still book an extra hour just for you, though, so if you want to come back at eight, we can have our date here, just the two of us." Shizuru took a slow breath and continued with hopeful eyes, "Or you could stay for the meeting, and I'll help teach you how to brew yourself some tea."

Natsuki tried to hold onto her anger, for the principle of it if nothing else, but it was just no good. Shizuru's sweet tone of voice and her apologetic words melted down Natsuki's heart, and she had to say something before the building ache in her chest caused her to do or say something embarrassing. "Tch, fine," she said. "I'll give you a chance."

The sparkle of joy that burst within Shizuru at this was worth any frustration Natsuki might have felt previously. It was even worth the fact that Shizuru couldn't hold herself back from leaning forwards to give Natsuki a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," Shizuru said. She tilted her head to the side with a smile and said, "You know I never meant to upset you, Natsuki. You can trust me."

Natsuki stared at Shizuru for a good minute as she considered this. Maybe Shizuru didn't intend any harm now, but Natsuki's gaze was inexorably drawn to the girl's crimson eyes. She still couldn't completely clear out her suspicions of the girl. Not yet. But that aching in her chest wouldn't go away, either. There was just something about this girl...

"I don't know," Natsuki said. "But I want to."

X-X-X

Thirty minutes later, after keeping to the back of the room to avoid the gazes of other students as much as possibly, Natsuki had what she could most charitably describe as "hot leaf water." All in all, she considered it a minor success, as it was certainly better than the full-body burns she'd been fearing at a certain point earlier when her pot nearly boiled over. It was obvious, though, that the girls in the club had a lot more experience at this than her. Shizuru skimmed over all of the basics, and spent most of her time guiding the girls on more advanced portions of tea ceremony.

Ready to give up on this dating endeavor as an utter failure, Natsuki dropped her head to the table and prepared to wait the hour out. When the rest of the girls left, she'd wave goodbye to Shizuru and get on with her life. This was just pointless. Some first date, if she could even call it that. Better to just call it quits, and pay no attention to the arms wrapped around her shoulders.

_Wait, what!?_

"I'm sorry, Natsuki," Shizuru said softly, as Natsuki tried not to jump out of her skin from surprise. "I let myself get caught up in the culture of a Zipango tea ceremony, and I couldn't give you the instruction you needed. I'm sorry you had to wait through that part, but I'll help you out now, personally. Can you forgive me for making you wait this much?"

"Ah...!" Natsuki let out. It was about as coherent as she could get in the current situation. She didn't know how to handle the sudden proximity of Shizuru, particularly when it came to the soft feeling of the girl's breasts pressing against her back.

That feeling only got worse – or possibly better, Natsuki was still trying to decide – when Shizuru squeezed herself closer to Natsuki. "Oww... Will Natsuki forgive me now?"

"Huh!?

And now all of Shizuru's upper body was pressed against Natsuki's back as she squeezed the girl in a tight hug. Shizuru whimpered slightly and nuzzled into the back of Natsuki's neck. "How about now. Please, Natsuki? I'll keep hugging you till it's all better if I need to."

"Gah! No, no! It's fine!" Natsuki said. "You can let go, I forgive you!"

Shizuru did indeed loosen her hold at this, but she didn't let go just yet. "Ara, does Natsuki not like my hugs? I saw her looking so lonely and down and it was my fault so I had to make her better..."

"What? No, it's not that!" Natsuki protested before the question had a chance to get through to her conscious mind. Her cheeks flushed red as she realized what she'd just admitted, though she was fortunate enough that none of the other girls around seemed to be paying any attention to her and Shizuru at that moment. Most of them were engaged in conversations of their own now as they drank their tea, so they were distracted, at least briefly. "Not now though! Not with others around," she hissed out.

At last, this caused Shizuru to let go of Natsuki. "Ara, alright then. I'll get you later."

"Er, thanks... I guess," Natsuki said. She turned around in her chair to face Shizuru. Despite herself, she couldn't help but let a smile cross her face. As soon as she realized this, though, she suppressed it and quickly turned away from Shizuru again. _Damn that girl! What is with her, anyway? Who just hugs someone out of the blue like that? And why did I appreciate it? She's insane, and she's driving me insane as well!_

Shizuru allowed herself a gentle giggle at Natsuki's display, though not for too long. She brought a hand down to gently rub Natsuki's back as she came up beside the girl and looked down at her. "Ara, it seems Natsuki still looks quite stressed. Forgive me if I'm a bother."

Natsuki shook her head slowly. "No... no, it's not you. Sorry, I just drive myself crazy sometimes. And there's a some other stuff going on now to stress me out."

Shizuru sat down in a chair next to Natsuki, continuing to rub the girl's back. Natsuki found herself leaning back into the hand, relaxing despite herself. "Well, I'm here to talk if you wish. Perhaps later, when we have some time to ourselves. Until then, would you like me to show you how to brew some tea? I promised you as much, and I intend to follow through with that."

After a couple minutes of just letting herself feel the motion of Shizuru's hand against her back, Natsuki looked over at Shizuru and gave her a small smile, not bothering at all to hide it. "Yeah," she said. "I'd like that."

X-X-X

"See you next week, Shizuru," the girl said with a wave from the door. "And I hope you'll come back too, Natsuki!"

Natsuki blinked in surprise at her invitation, but Shizuru just smiled warmly and waved back. "Next week then, Chloe, and thank you very much for helping us clean up."

"No problem. Bye!"

Natsuki waited until the door had closed before she turned to Shizuru and asked, "What was that about? Why would she want me to come back next week? I never said anything to anyone here."

"Ara, Natsuki doesn't know?" Shizuru asked with a twinkle in her eye. When Natsuki shook her head, Shizuru continued, "It's simple really. Natsuki makes me happy, and my friends want me to be happy."

Natsuki's face was flushed red almost before her mind had a chance to process those words. She nearly protested that she didn't do that, but she held herself back as she realized how that would sound. "Bu-but! How am I doing that? I'm barely doing anything for you!"

The smile that burst out on Shizuru's face and her melodic laughter at Natsuki's protests immediately put the lie to this statement. "Ara... Natsuki is just too cute," Shizuru said. "She can't help but make me happy. But beyond that, Natsuki is quite sweet, too. The fact that she wore her Sakura flower for me is quite touching."

"Er... it's nothing..." Natsuki said, turning her head away from Shizuru and grabbing a sip of tea. It really did taste amazing, but she credited that more to Shizuru's efforts than her own. "But I guess I mean... why me? You can have any girl in the school. Can't any of them make you happy?"

"Hmm..." Shizuru spent a couple minutes thinking about this as she sipped her tea. "Natsuki just feels special to me. She has a strength in her – an inner fire – that I don't see in my fangirls. It makes her being sweet to me all the more precious."

"Er... right..." Natsuki said. She scolded herself for asking that question in the first place. It really couldn't be good for her cheeks to be that flushed.

"And now, Natsuki," Shizuru said. A peculiar lilt to her voice prompted Natsuki to look over at her. Her eyes twinkled mischievously as she said, "Your turn. Why do you like me?"

Natsuki considered herself lucky that she didn't have tea in her mouth at that moment as she surely would have spat it out if she had. "Wha-what?"

Shizuru smiled silently at Natsuki as she calmly took the teacup from the girl and filled it back to the top. "It's alright if you don't want to answer, Natsuki," she said, passing the teacup back to her. "I know you like my tea, at least. I'm glad that I'm able to do that for you, as little as it is."

Shizuru's words caused a twinge in Natsuki's heart. There was almost a little sadness in them that Shizuru couldn't do more for her. But that couldn't be all of it. Natsuki hadn't just stayed there for her tea. And she didn't put up with Shizuru's teasing for nothing, either. There was something there, she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"No..." Natsuki said, trying to force the words out. "It's that you're... nice..." She cringed as soon as the word came out. Apparently forcing it wasn't going to work. She shook her head and motioned for Shizuru to wait. She could do better. "You just make me feel all... soft inside. I don't know, I'm sorry... I just... I feel comfortable with you. In a way I haven't felt since my mother died..."

Natsuki felt Shizuru's hand pat her shoulder, then slide down her arm to finally grasp her hand. She looked over at Shizuru to find the girl smiling at softly. Natsuki caught what she thought was a hint of tears in Shizuru's eyes, but they were quickly blinked away. Acting purely on instinct, Natsuki leaned closer to Shizuru, allowing the girl to wrap her in a hug. Natsuki didn't know what came over her, but emotions just seemed to surge to the surface. She brought her own arms around Shizuru and pulled herself in. She couldn't bring herself to care about how unlike her this act was. It felt right, and that was all that mattered.

X-X-X

"I've pretty much been on my own ever since," Natsuki said. She accepted another cup of tea that Shizuru poured for her and continued, "I've got a bank account somewhere with all the child-support my father sends, but I haven't touched it in years. I can take care of myself, so I do."

"Ara... Doesn't Natsuki ever get lonely, though, without a family to support her? Natsuki doesn't even seem to have too many friends..." Shizuru said, placing a hand on Natsuki's knee.

"I'm alright..." Natsuki said. She felt a twinge in her heart at saying this, though she ignored. What was harder to ignore was the gentle squeeze Shizuru gave her knee and the concerned look she got from the other girl. "Really, I'm okay..." Another squeeze, a concerned whimper from Shizuru. "Well I still have Duran, you know! And I call him out sometimes when I really need it, but mostly I'm fine..."

Shizuru pouted at this. "Does Natsuki need another hug? She really seemed like she needed it earlier..." Natsuki froze under Shizuru's gaze as her cheeks slowly turned red. She mumbled a response under her breath, not even sure what she was saying herself. Shizuru tilted her head at this. "What was that, Natsuki?"

"I said... ahem... maybe... now and then..." Natsuki's cheeks broke through red and started to push purple as she let the words out. Why she made no effort to stop, she still couldn't explain. She just blamed the weird feeling Shizuru gave her. "I could use... a hug..."

The sound of a teacup being placed on the table warned Natsuki of the incoming arms, but she made no move to evade Shizuru's grasp. It was pointless now. Shizuru was wedging herself further and further into Natsuki's heart, and at this point she didn't even mind. As much as it felt like her life was getting away from her, she couldn't say she felt uncomfortable with it. Particularly so as she wrapped her own arms around Shizuru and hugged her back. If this was where her heart took her, then it was a fine place to be.

Unless Shizuru was the Crimson Maiden.

"Natsuki...?" Shizuru said, slowly backing out from the hug so she could look Natsuki in the eyes. "Are you alright? You went tense all of a sudden?"

"Oh... sorry..." Natsuki said, giving Shizuru a weak smile. "Shizuru... you aren't... I mean, you wouldn't... you wouldn't ever do anything to hurt me, would you?"

Natsuki stared into Shizuru's eyes to try to find any hint of deceit in them. All she could make out in them was an initial flash of confusion, followed by worry and care. "Of course not! What would make Natsuki ask this?"

Natsuki looked down from Shizuru and breathed out a sigh. That was good enough for now, at least. She hadn't asked Shizuru directly about it, but that would force her to go too far into that subject, and she just didn't want to ruin their date. "Sorry... but can we talk about this later? I just... I just want to enjoy today, not worry about the crap going on in my life. I'll tell you all about it later, I promise."

"Alright," Shizuru said, granting Natsuki a lovely smile. She leaned forward to give Natsuki a quick peck on the cheek. Her eyes flicked over to the side for a second, towards the Sakura blossom Natsuki had placed in her hair for the date. A mischievous twinkle formed in her eye, and she backed out of the hug to take another sip of tea. "Would Natsuki like to know a secret?"

Natsuki raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Sakuras aren't in bloom right now," Shizuru said with an impish grin. "Few flowers are this time of the year."

Natsuki blinked slowly at this revelation as she ran it through her head. It was the middle of November, of course flowers shouldn't be in bloom. But she'd been far too distracted the previous day to remark on that. "Then how...?"

Shizuru chuckled gently. "I actually went by the spot where we met a bit earlier today. Sakuras weren't in bloom when I passed by today. But a few other flowers were in bloom which weren't yesterday. Would Natsuki like to guess why that might be?"

Natsuki took a sip of tea as she thought on this. "Well... I guess it has to be magic, doesn't it? Someone who works at the school playing around with the flowers?"

"Ara... indeed," Shizuru said. "I figured as much a couple years ago, when I noticed the flowers blooming out of season. I asked around a bit at school to find out who tended the gardens until I tracked her down: Adriana Massala, the third Column. It turns out she's an expert Mediator, and gardening is one of her favorite hobbies while she's here in Garderobe. Eventually she became good enough at it that she was able to accelerate the blooming cycles of all the flowers in the garden. She makes sure that something is always in bloom, making the garden always quite lovely, and a new adventure every day."

"Oh... I see," Natsuki said. _Interesting, I guess... though flowers aren't really my thing._

"That's not the secret, Natsuki," Shizuru said, noticing Natsuki's fading interest.

"...Oh."

"The secret is, Sakuras don't follow any predictable pattern. I've only seen them in bloom a couple of times since I arrived at Garderobe. I asked Adriana about it, and she told me simply that they bloom only on very special occasions." Shizuru was silent for a bit, simply sipping her tea. Natsuki wasn't quite sure, but she thought that Shizuru was tensed up for some reason. "To be honest, Natsuki... I think that our meeting was such an occasion. I have a good feeling about this... and I hope that you do too..."

Shizuru looked so vulnerable as she said this. Natsuki felt touched as well, but Shizuru was looking away at the moment, so at least she wouldn't be embarrassed by being caught in a reaction like that. She didn't want to think that she could be falling for someone this quickly. It just didn't sit right with her self-image. But it was even harder for her to deny it. She couldn't run away from her feelings. Like it or not – and she was edging ever so slightly towards "like it" – she had to see this through. Even the prospect of Shizuru being the Crimson Maiden wasn't enough to change how she felt.

Of course, knowing all that didn't make her any better with words. Natsuki stared at Shizuru, willing the right words to come to her, but nothing came. All she could think of was the slight pink tinge forming in Shizuru's cheeks at her admission. _She's so pretty like that... I wonder... what would she look like with a full blush on her cheeks?_

Before she fully knew what she was doing, Natsuki leaned towards Shizuru and planted a slow, gentle kiss on the girl's cheek. Almost immediately, it flushed red, confirming Natsuki's suspicions that it would make her absolutely gorgeous. As Natsuki pulled back, she caught Shizuru blinking in surprise and bringing a hand up to hold her cheek where Natsuki had kissed her.

"Natsuki kissed me..."

Natsuki had to suppress a giggle at Shizuru's reaction. She was not only beautiful now, but cute too. Natsuki had definitely made the right decision here. "You earned it."

X-X-X

_Hi there, Yukino here. I saw Irina's message yesterday, so I thought I could help you all out by filling you in on Haruka, from the perspective of one of her closest friends. Nothing too personal, though; I'll keep her trust! I'm pretty confident she isn't the Crimson Maiden, and perhaps this profile will help show you why I believe this._

_Name: Haruka Armitage_

_Age: 18_

_Nationality: Aries_

_Profile: Haruka comes from one of the oldest military families in Aries. The family gained fame at the end of the First Aries Rebellion against the Lutetian Empire. When the Aries leaders sued for peace, Colonel Ulric Armitage, who led one of the most successful brigades, refused to acknowledge the defeat. He argued that Aries had been winning the way, and it was sheer cowardice to give up. Since his particular brigade had seen little but victories, he had no trouble convincing them of his view, even if most of the rest of Aries accepted the peace._

_Armitage and his brigade became known as "The Undefeated," as the Lutetia troops tried and failed to wipe them out. Although they survived, they were driven deeper into Aries territory over the course of next couple years. By this time, anti-Lutetia sentiment had built up thanks to the behavior of the troops within Aries as they pursued Armitage. When Armitage reached the capital, it was a matter of weeks before Aries once again declared open rebellion against Lutetia. With the Lutetia troops now surrounded deep within Aries territory, they were at a large disadvantage. The early victory ultimately led the success of the Second Aries Rebellion, and Armitage is frequently credited with inspiring the victory._

_Okay, I apologize if anyone's asleep from the history lesson, but I do have a point. Ever since she was a child, Haruka's been compared to Ulric. She's every bit as determined as he was, to the point of being bull-headed. When I was over for dinner one night, her father told me a story of when Haruka was playing chess and refused to accept a checkmate. Her words at the time were, "If her king were in danger, a knight would move in a straight line!" When her father told this story, Haruka defended her earlier actions, "Well if you fight against the inevitable long enough, sooner or later the inevitable will give up and go home."_

_On top of her determination, Haruka has a strong sense of honor and justice. It was that sense which led her to protect me from a group of bullies in elementary school and teach me to take care of myself. I won't go into detail about our friendship, but rest assured that's she the most honest and straightforward person I've ever met. Disguising herself as the Crimson Maiden just isn't something Haruka would do._

_Bonded Child: Koumokuten, the berserker-fish_

_Fighting Style: Go on full attack and don't give up until you're unconscious and wake up in the infirmary. She always summons her Child right away, and it's rarely anything but Koumokuten. She hasn't mastered her Element to the extent that Shizuru has quite yet, but she's still quite fierce using it just as a giant mace._

_Why she might be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-Well, breast size matches the Maiden's, so that would work as her maintained feature if it is her._

_-She has been nicknamed "The Undefeated" on occasion, like Ulric. It kind of fits in with the "Maiden" moniker, which signifies that the Crimson Maiden has never lost a duel. It feels like a stretch to me, but it's the best I could come up with._

_Why she might not be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-She's far too honest a person to disguise herself like that. She hates liars, and disguising herself would certainly count there._

_-If the Crimson Maiden were flubbing her lines like Haruka, I'm sure someone would have noticed by now._

_Suspicion level: Low. Personally, I'd just rule her out, but we don't have any definitive evidence against her. I guess maybe if you really stretch things, and say she needs an alter ego to act out urges she can't handle normally, but that's really pushing it._

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** For those of you who saw my one-shot, Cuteness, a while back, my plushies have now arrived! You can see pics at http://leebot. livejournal. com/53794. html (snip the spaces, or just take the link from my profile).

Poll on who you think is the Crimson Maiden is continued from last chapter, so make your guesses known! Also, an "open response" for you this time as well: If I were to write a sequel to Perchance to Dream, what should I title it? No reason for asking... .


	8. Memories of Fuuka

**Author's Note:** I'm very, very sorry for the long wait for this chapter. First I was working on Perchance to Dream, then my computer died on me, and then my dog died on me, at which point I wasn't really in the mood to write this for some time. But I'm back now, so I hope you enjoy.

Poll results for last two chapters:

Shizuru - 32

Undecided/Unsure - 11

Nao - 10

Other - 7

More than one person - 2

Haruka - 1

Midori - 0

Mai - 0

Hmm, a lot for "Other" there... Tomoe had a lot of suspicion from reviewers, so that's probably who most of those were thinking of.

Much thanks to Yuri-hime for betaing this!

X-X-X

**Title:** Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 7:** Memories of Fuuka

X-X-X

_Okay, now I really have to figure out who the Crimson Maiden is, if only to rule out Shizuru. I'm not sure if it's just time or something else, but my anger at her gall has started to dissipate a little. I'm still resolved to take her down, but I can approach this a bit more reasonably than in a blind rage, which would be playing right into her hands._

_First thing I'm doing is to mend that note from the Maiden that I inadvertently shattered. I'll need it if I intend to send a reply at any point, but it might also help me pin down the Maiden's identity. I've found that absent any comparison, handwriting analysis is mostly useless in analyzing a person, but it can provide a positive analysis if you match it to another sample. I'm sure Shizuru will send me a note sooner or later – I mean, I asked her to do so to set up another date – so I can check it then and hopefully rule it out. Once she's in the clear, I should be free to open up to her about what's going on with the Maiden._

_Eventually. Don't want to pull her into my problems too soon, but if things develop between us, she'll deserve to know._

**September 2, 1406**

"Hey Shiro, you have a minute?"

The professor swiveled his chair around and adjusted his glasses. "Ah Youko, sure. What's up?"

Youko walked over to Shiro and cleared some room on his desk so that she could show him her results. "I was finally able to fit a function to the measurements of Shinso's output. Only thing is, the numbers seem a bit too nice to be true. Would you mind checking them for me?"

"Ah, no problem," Shiro said, taking Youko's printout from her. He analyzed it for a minute before saying, "Huh, well it looks pretty good... Might need a couple tweaks to the magnitude scale, but the period of variation seems to be a very close match. What's the correlation coefficient for this fit?"

"R-squared is about .94," Youko said, "but most of that is the vertical fit. Certainty in the period is over 99%."

"Mm-hmm... Well the fit looks good, but I wouldn't say it's too nice to be true. Was there something else?"

"Well it was the value of the period that stood out to me," Youko said. She pulled out a paper of her calculations from the stack and showed it to Shiro. "The period is pretty close to one day, off by just 3%, though that's still much smaller than the error bars. What struck me is that it's precisely double the period of the tides. It just varies every day-and-a-bit rather than every half-day-and-a-bit. Or in other words, it's a combination of periods of one day and one lunar month, almost exactly."

"Which would imply," Shiro said, his voice mostly steady but betraying some excitement, "that Shinso's output depends on the position of the moon in the sky. Not that significant relative to its total output, but this could be a huge breakthrough in identifying the source of magic."

Youko was having trouble containing her excitement herself. It wasn't everyday you got to revolutionize modern science. But she had to try to contain it. Take things one step at a time. Make sure you haven't made a mistake somewhere so you don't come out looking like a fool. "Right. But you'll want to be sure to double-check my data first. I'll compare it to astronomical data, see if the output is at a maximum or minimum when Garderobe is closest to the moon, or if it's somewhere off."

"Good idea," Shiro said. He spun his chair back around to his computer and motioned to the screen. "And that reminds me of something else that may help.... Have you heard of the ruins of Fuuka?"

X-X-X

**November 16, 1406**

_Natsuki shivered as a cool breeze blew across her bare flesh. Her Robe had been reduced to mere scraps now, which barely served the function of undergarments. Shizuru eyed her hungrily, standing barely an inch away from her now. Natsuki shivered under her gaze, and she tried to bring her arms around to cover her body, sparing herself some dignity, but some force she couldn't see was keeping them pinned to her sides. Perhaps it was her own mind holding her back... was this really that bad an outcome? It _was_ Shizuru after all._

_Natsuki glared weakly at Shizuru. She contemplated surrendering, but even with Shizuru, she couldn't bring herself to admit defeat. Shizuru surely wouldn't force her if she were unwilling. No, Shizuru was more likely to just fix that detail and seduce Natsuki into being willing. She seemed to do that all too easily, as if she knew everything about Natsuki, so she could perfectly draw her in. But was she being drawn into a trap? Or did Shizuru really feel something for her?_

"_I'd say she does, if you ask me," Shizuru said. "It's only natural, after all."_

_Natsuki blinked rapidly, trying to sort out what was going. She hadn't just lost to the Crimson Maiden. She hadn't just lost to Shizuru. She was dreaming, and she was once more dreaming of Shizuru. Or her dream Shizuru was invading her dreams again. _Whatever. I could use her to talk with about all this.

"_Oi, Shizuru... er, Dream Shizuru... So, you think Shizuru feels something for me? But, what if she's the Crimson Maiden?"_

_Shizuru backed off from Natsuki and tilted her head as she considered this. "Ara, then I'd say that the Crimson Maiden has a crush on you."_

_Natsuki grunted at this. "Great. But just think what that would imply. She developed a crush on me, but when her perverted challenge to a duel didn't catch my attention – though really, who could blame her for trying such a fool-proof plan?" Natsuki rolled her eyes sarcastically. If nothing else, the fact that the Crimson Maiden had such poor tact while Shizuru was much better was a point in Shizuru's favor. "Then she stalked me out and tried to seduce me subtly. It puts a lie to everything that's happened between us. It's all just a ploy, nothing genuine about it. Or it would be, if she is the Maiden..."_

"_Hmm, well if that's the case," the image of Shizuru said, "then you have my permission to accept her duel invitation and teach her a lesson. But to be honest, I doubt that is the case. I've been watching her through your eyes, and it all seems genuine to me."_

"_Well, I guess I'll see how this goes then..." Natsuki said. "But... do you really think I can beat her? Shizuru's supposedly the strongest student the school's seen since Lena Sayers."_

_Shizuru gave a light chuckle, her lips pursed together. "Oh, I think you'd be able to. I did some... 'searching' around in the spirit plane, and I found a certain dog who was quite confident that the two of you could overcome anything."_

"_Duran? You can talk to him?" Natsuki said. She almost couldn't contain her excitement at this revelation. She finally had absolute confirmation that her Child was indeed the original Duran, and she might now have a much more convenient way to contact him than summoning him in battle – or pretending she was in battle so she could summon him, which tended to take up a fair bit of energy._

"_Well, I wouldn't exactly call it 'talking,'" Shizuru said. She seemed unable to restrain a smile as she looked upon Natsuki's excitement. "But I can communicate with him to an extent. The two of you seem to have quite a bond, which helps to make you one of the strongest students here. To be honest, I don't know if that alone would be enough to take on a Crystal like Shizuru, but I have a few secrets of my own, you know."_

"_Just a few?" Natsuki said. The things this apparition hadn't told her could fill a lifetime of tales, she suspected._

"_Natsuki no ikezu!" Shizuru said with a pout. "I'm just trying to help her out, but if she feels that she can't trust me, I guess I'll just go back home... The Natsuki there certainly appreciates me."_

"_Wait..." Natsuki said. "If you have your own Natsuki there, why did you come here?"_

"_Because," Shizuru said, dropping her feigned offense, "you need me here. The Natsuki back home is quite happy on her own, but you may still need some help. Beyond that, I do have a more personal reason, but... I regret to say that this is one thing I must keep secret for the time being. I'm truly sorry, Natsuki, but you can trust me that the secret does you no harm, and I will explain it all in good time."_

"_Hrmph, fine, I'll let you have that one," Natsuki said. "But then you owe me one answer in return. What's that secret you implied would help me match Shizuru in battle?"_

_Shizuru looked back at Natsuki for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I suppose that's only fair. The only real reason I didn't tell you this is that it's a rather long story. But it seems that we have enough time before you'll have to wake up for me to tell it to you, if you wish."_

_Natsuki briefly considered finding a way to get comfortable while listening to the story rather than just standing there, but she quickly realized that it was pretty irrelevant in a dream like this. Her body was barely present as it was. She'd barely considered it since the dream had started, and it might as well have not existed until she thought about it just now. Shrugging it off, Natsuki said, "Sure. I'm also curious about the story behind the other Natsuki you keep mentioning, if that ties into this."_

"_In a way," Shizuru said with a tilt of her head. "In particular, it deals with her previous incarnation, Natsuki Kuga. She was involved in an event known as the Carnival – a perverse ritual where 12 girls, the 'Ikusahime,' or just 'HiME,' were empowered with advanced abilities and the companionship of a Child, and then were forced to battle each other until only one remained, under the threat of the world being destroyed if they failed to comply._

"_Their Childs, like those in this world, were spirits who bonded with them and took corporeal form. The bond was enhanced by the HiME's affection for their most important person. The more powerful the Hime's affection was, the more powerful the Child became. However, this strength came at a terrible price. Were the Child to be defeated in battle, the HiME's most important person would die as well."_

"_What!? That's sick!" Natsuki exclaimed, unable to contain her disgust any longer. "Who the hell could come up with something like that? What kind of twisted gods did this world have? It's bad enough that the Childs would have that drawback, but to then force the HiME to fight until eleven of their most precious people are dead? That's just sadistic!"_

"_Indeed," Shizuru said with a sad smile. "The god responsible for this Carnival, the 'Obsidian Lord,' was empowered by the despair of the HiME who fought. But I can at least reassure you that this particular Carnival had a happy ending, and it was the last. The victorious HiME from the previous Carnival had been granted immortality, and she spent the intervening 300 years developing a spell which would restore the lives of all the HiME and their most important people. In the final hours of the Carnival, the efforts of one the HiME allowed her to escape her imprisonment by the Obsidian Lord and cast this spell. Revived, Natsuki Kuga led the charge to destroy the HiME star, which empowered and protected the Obsidian Lord, giving her friend Mai Tokiha the opportunity to defeat the Obsidian Lord."_

"_Well, that's good, I guess," Natsuki said. "But tell me, is that the same Mai as the one I know?"_

"_Well, in the sense that you are the same person as Natsuki Kuga. As you are that Natsuki's equivalent in this world, so does Mai have her parallel. In fact, most of the HiME have parallel versions you know in this world, including one very significant one."_

"_You. Or Shizuru, rather."_

"_Exactly," Shizuru said with a smile. "Shizuru Fujino had harbored a secret love for Natsuki since before the beginning of the Carnival. Natsuki discovered this near the end. Although she was initially frightened off, she did some soul-searching and came to the conclusion that she could accept Shizuru's feelings for her, and she even appreciated them. She didn't realize it at the time, but she had begun to love Shizuru back as well. Shizuru was her most important person at the end of the Carnival, and Natsuki was Shizuru's._

"_And this, at last, brings us to myself," Shizuru said. "As the Carnival ended, the HiME lost their powers and their ability to summon their Childs. In some of the HiME, their connections to their Childs and significant others were so strong that their bonds didn't fade along with their Childs. An echo of their Child's spirit remained behind in these bonds, taking on the appearances and personalities of their beloved. In the case of Natsuki, that would be me. Shizuru's love for Natsuki was also strong enough that she got her own Dream Natsuki to stick around._

"_So, at last, this brings me to how I could try to help you," Shizuru said. "Just as I helped Natsuki Kuga by strengthening Duran through her love for Shizuru, I can do the same for you. Even if it turns out she's the Crimson Maiden and you become angry with her, I can still use any residual affection you feel for her, or even just memories of how you felt at this point, to bring you up to her level in battle. But you really don't need to worry about all of that, just leave it to me."_

_Natsuki remained silent for a few good minutes as she mulled this over. Finally, she let out a sigh and said, "Sorry, just a lot to take in. I guess I'll just have to take your word for it. Certainly no way for me to check any of it out. ...Just, a couple questions. I know you said I'm not fated to follow the same path as the Natsuki in that world, but I am curious: What happened to her? Did things work out with Shizuru?"_

_Shizuru's smile was enough for Natsuki to know that things had worked out. "They were living together a few months after the Carnival, and they were married by the time Natsuki was out of college. They had a daughter together some years later, when the technology was available, and they remained together the rest of their lives."_

_Shizuru paused at this point, her emotions getting to her. She wiped a tear from her eyes, gave a weak smile, and continued, "When Natsuki died – together with Shizuru; her heart gave out just as Shizuru died of old age – I thought that I would vanish with her, but I was released. It's hard to describe my experience in that time, or anytime I go to that state. It's just not something humans can ever experience in life, so words lack for describing it. In the end, though, it was lonely. I was cut off from Natsuki, and still mourning her death. I wished I could have just died with her._

"_But then fate finally smiled upon me. In the chaos of that state of existence, I caught a glimpse of another Natsuki, just for an instant. We were torn away from each other before we could communicate in any way, but we were both resolved to find the other again. Eventually, we did, and that time we were both better at navigating that existence and were able to hold longer, to actually talk with each other. It turns out that she was like me: She was Shizuru Fujino's Dream Natsuki._

"_The two of us could never stay together for very long, but we spend all our time apart trying to get back to each other. We spent eternities striving for just moments of joy when we could connect. We got better at it – you might say we learned how to navigate that existence and find each other better – but it seems impossible to perfect it. After many hundreds of years, Natsuki and Shizuru were reincarnated. They found each other and, quite naturally, fell in love. They're currently engaged to be married in a few months. Dream Natsuki and I hadn't expected them to be reincarnated, so we didn't find them until quite recently, but we've all been quite happy since then."_

_Once again, Natsuki had to pause to take this all in. "Damn it," she said at last, turning her head down._

"_Ara? What's wrong, Natsuki?"_

"_Sorry... just thinking about Shizuru... my Shizuru. Listening to all that brought a lot of emotions up... I don't know if I could take it if she turns out to be the Crimson Maiden," Natsuki said. She looked up at Shizuru and plead, "Please... you know her mind better than I do. Is it her? Is she Crimson Maiden? Could she be?"_

_Shizuru was over to Natsuki in an instant, holding her in a supportive embrace. Slowly, Natsuki wrapped her arms back around the spirit. "I don't know for sure," Shizuru said slowly. "But I don't think so. I can't rule her out from the actions of the Crimson Maiden in the past... Shizuru can be quite the playgirl, but the second letter you received didn't sound like something she might say to me. I might be wrong though..."_

"_Stop," Natsuki said, cutting Shizuru off. "Let's just leave it at that, okay? Tomorrow, I can worry. For tonight, I just want to rest peacefully."_

"_Alright, Natsuki." Shizuru gave the girl a tender squeeze within their embrace. "I'm good for that."_

_Natsuki smiled. The surroundings around her slowly shifted until she found herself lying down in bed, still hugging Shizuru. With a blissful sigh, she nestled her head into Shizuru's chest, making a mental note that she'd have to try this with the real Shizuru someday._

X-X-X

Akane rubbed her eyes with her free hand and yawned, silently cursing herself for getting involved with such a madwoman. She did need the credit, granted, but she probably wouldn't have jumped in this term if it weren't for the business with the Crimson Maiden. If she'd put it off, she wouldn't now be struggling just to avoid tripping over her own feet as Midori dragged her to the 6 a.m. meeting she'd set up.

"Uahh..." Akane let out another yawn. "What made you think it was a good idea to schedule a meeting this early? Are you always up this early?"

"Hah!" Midori let out a brief chuckle, though she didn't relent in dragging Akane towards the site of their meeting. "Don't kid me like that! By my standards, this is closer to staying up late than waking up early."

"Then... why?"

"Because," Midori said, finally pausing and turning around to answer Akane, "Professor Shiro is on the other side of the planet right now. 6 a.m. for us is 4 p.m. for him, so it's the last hour he'll normally be at work. I'm trying to help you make a good impression on him by picking a time for the meeting that's convenient for him."

"Oh... right, fine," Akane said. With an effort to wipe the rest of the sleep out of her eyes, she pushed forwards to the conference room. "But, wouldn't it have been easier for us to do the meeting at something 11 p.m.? I'm up that late most nights, and he'll be in work then."

"Well yeah, but good luck getting any of the faculty here to agree to a meeting at such a time," Midori grumbled as she followed Akane. It sounded to Akane like Midori might have had experience getting meeting requests at this time refused. "Nothing but killjoys teaching here, seriously..."

"Be careful who you call a 'killjoy.'" Midori turned around in a flash at this voice, just in time to be caught in the face by a yawn. "I wish you'd told me yesterday you could have made an evening meeting. I was half-convinced you were bringing Shiho along."

"Ah! Professor Sayers!" Midori stammered. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to imply-"

"Forget it," the professor said, waving it off. "Just promise you'll never call me 'Professor Sayers' again. That is, unless you want to keep making me feel like an old woman."

Akane cleared her throat, hoping that she might be able to save Midori at least a little embarrassment here. "So, um, is it okay if I call you 'Lena' then?"

Lena looked over at Akane, just focusing on her for the first time. Her demeanor immediately lightened as she looked upon a person who wasn't the current cause of her distress, and she gave Akane a welcoming smile. "Akane Soir, right? Yes, Lena's fine." Lena motioned for Akane to follow her as she led the two girls to the conference room. "I'm sorry we didn't get to meet on Wednesday. We don't get much interest in archeology projects here, and I was almost ready to give up on this one when Midori tackled me in the hall to say that she'd found someone to help. I've been quite interested in meeting with you since then."

"Oh yeah, sorry," Akane said. She casted a glare back to Midori, who was currently sulking as she walked behind Akane and Lena. "I lost track of Midori when she trampled a student in the dorms and I had to apologize for her."

"'Trampled'...?" Lena turned back to join Akane in glaring at Midori.

Midori let out a grunt at this attention. "I'm already serving detention this afternoon for that, and I'm grounded in the university this weekend on top of that. My luck I ran over a friend of Haruka's..."

"You didn't need to run over anyone," Lena said, casting a final glare back to Midori before she stopped at the door to the conference room and unlocked it for the girls. "I'm just as capable of receiving a message as anyone else in the school. Not to mention an e-mail or phone call. I know the headmistress likes to encourage you to practice your magic by using messages for communication, but I only care that you use whatever you're most comfortable with that doesn't involve running over innocent bystanders."

"Er, well I don't really trust my handwriting..." Midori said as she followed Akane and Lena into the room. "I'm still too used to the Aswad script, and the penmanship from it is counterproductive to writing legibly in Lutetian. And any e-mail or phone call would have missed the deadline, so I kinda had to get to you in person..."

Lena obviously wasn't pleased with this response. Akane made sure to dodge her glare as she found a seat facing the screens in the front of the room. "I thought I told you that my husband is Aswad," Lena said. "I'm used to your handwriting. And I'm sure I told you how much I wanted to do this project, so you should know better than to think being five minutes past the deadline would matter to me. Take your punishment like a woman, and next time maybe stop to think for a second before you risk the health and safety of your classmates with a stunt like that."

Midori gritted her teeth for a moment, but she eventually relented and dropped down to a chair, defeated. "Alright, sorry. I'll try to do better. And I'll go apologize to Yukino later today, I guess. You happy?"

Lena studied Midori from the computer at the front of the room for a moment before saying, "Not as much as I'd be if you didn't just end with that, but it'll do. Anyways, I'm turning on our feed here, so stop sulking unless you want to explain this all to Shiro and his grads."

With a final roll of her eyes, Midori put on a more pleasant face and faced the screens at the front of the room. Akane chuckled at her upperclassman's behavior. It was certainly enjoyable to see Midori taken to task after she'd dragged Akane out of bed in the early morning for their meeting. She certainly wasn't a bad person, but she did still have some maturing to do, and Lena seemed to be the person to help.

Akane's attention was caught as the screen in the front of the room flickered on, and a red light turned on a camera above the screen to signal that they were transmitting. An image came on the screen, showing a middle-aged man sitting alongside a boy who looked to be college-aged and a girl that could have been young enough to be in Garderobe herself. Even so, she seemed quite mature for her age – particularly when Akane compared her to Midori.

"Good morning, Lena," the man said, smiling at her. "Up earlier than usual, I see."

"Midori's idea," Lena said, motioning with her head to the girl. "I think our usual time will work for the girls here normally, though."

"Ah, that's good," the man said. "In any case, I believe introductions are in order. I'm Professor Shiro Sayers, but feel free to just call me Shiro. This is Kazuya Kraus, a graduate student working for me," Shiro motioned to the boy on his right, "And Youko Helene, a fourth-year undergrad," Shiro finished off by motioning the girl sitting to his left, who gave the group in Garderobe a polite bow of her head.

"Thank you, Shiro," Lena said. "I believe you all know me, Professor Lena Sayers. Helping us out with this project over here are Midori Al-Aswad, a Crystal majoring in Scholarship, specializing in history and archeology, and Akane Soir, a Pearl majoring in Mediation and minoring in Scholarship."

Akane nodded to the group on the screen. "Pleased to meet you all," she said. Greetings were returned and exchanged by the other students present.

Shiro looked over to Kazuya and said, "Kazuya, if you wouldn't mind briefing our colleagues on the background behind this research?"

Kazuya nodded to Shiro. "Of course, Professor." Youko pulled over a keyboard from her desk and made a few quick keystrokes, causing an image of what looked like Zipango ruins to appear on an inset of the screen, as Shiro began talking. "Our destination for this project is the Fuuka ruins in Zipang. Fuuka Academy was erected in 790. It was the equivalent of Garderobe for its day, teaching capable girls in magical arts.

"Originally it was open to any girl who could afford tuition, but since travel was much more difficult in those days, it served almost entirely Zipango girls. Other nations started to view Zipang as a military threat in response to this, as a single Otome could match an entire battalion trained in conventional warfare. Zipang ignored pressures to close down Fuuka, and this led to an escalating series of attacks against Zipang, which were all easily rebuffed. Before an all-out work could break out though, an unknown type of disaster struck Fuuka. Fuuka's Shinso became unstable, and the academy had to be abandoned for the safety of its students and faculty. Without their Shinso, Zipang's Otome were depowered, removing the threat in the eyes of other nations.

"Fuuka's Shinso has only been calming down slowly. There is little information available on the exact dangers it poses, as only a handful of teams have attempted to survey the ruins, none of whom felt it safe enough to venture far in. The Zipango government has been reluctant to approve any further surveys, but Lena was able to impress Emperor Tokiha enough on a recent trip that he approved our project under the condition that Lena and at least two Pearl or Crystal students accompanied us for reasons of safety. We don't know if even this will be sufficient, but we'll have to judge that when we get there."

"Oi!" Midori said, raising up her hand. She was clearly excited by the prospect of getting to explore these ruins, and she was utterly failing at keeping herself contained. "So are we going to try to figure out what sort of disaster hit Fuuka? Or are we just doing this to see if it's safe to get in there and find whatever we can?"

"Well that's certainly part of it," Shiro said, "but we actually have a few more goals to accomplish in the ruins. Part of the reason we were able to get approval for this expedition was providing a number of solid goals we hope to accomplish in order to justify the risk." Shiro motioned over to Youko now. "Youko here is studying the theory behind magic. She spent a year working at Garderobe, studying its Shinso. She's as knowledgeable about its operation as anyone alive, and it's my hope that she might be able to fix whatever's gone wrong with Fuuka's Shinso."

"Please, Professor," Youko protested. "I really doubt I'll be able to manage that without some serious help. Even with most of Garderobe's support staff helping us out, we have no guarantee that the Shinso is at all repairable." Youko turned back to the screen and gave a soft smile. "My primary goal is much more conservative. I simply hope to measure the magic output at the Fuuka site to test a hypothesis about the source of magic. Even if it's confirmed, there's still a lot more work that would need to be done before we can get any significant insight."

Midori let out a light chuckle, locking eyes with Youko as best as she could through the screen. "Oh, you're something, alright," she said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Youko replied.

"I heard rumors about you," Midori said. She leaned back in her chair and smirked at the image on the screen. "You're on the verge of the an earth-shattering breakthrough in both archeology and magic studies, and you're calling your goal 'conservative' and saying it could take a lot of work. You should just be glad I'm on the other side of the world now, or I'd show you in person how to handle such excitement."

Youko narrowed her eyes as she stared at Midori. "...Perhaps. You'll be here soon enough. If you're that committed, I'll humor you then."

Midori's face noticeably brightened. She leaned forward with a grin on her face. "I expect you'll do a lot more than that for me when all is said and done," she said with a wink.

Midori and Youko's conversation was interrupted by a light chuckle coming from Lena. She glanced at her husband and said, "I told you it was common here. Must be a shared gene."

"Wouldn't be surprised if you're right," Shiro said. "I also wouldn't be surprised if Midori ends up being wrong there, knowing Youko."

Akane blinked rapidly at this. She must have missed some innuendo going on here. She looked to Kazuya on the screen for a clue, only to become even more confused when she caught him looking at her with regretful eyes. He quickly covered up his expression though, and he gave Akane an eyeroll at the behavior of the other attendees.

"Shiro!" Youko snapped. Her cheeks filled with red at this comment. This was the final clue Akane needed to figure out what was going on, causing her own cheeks to match suit with Youko's, as she tried to shove those images out of her head.

X-X-X

_Ara, Natsuki!_

_How does dinner together sound to you? I'll be in the student kitchen at 5:30, let me know if you can make it, and we can spend our second date putting together something you'll like, since we did something that I liked yesterday._

_Hmm... I just hope that Natsuki doesn't think I'm only doing this to earn another kiss from her. Well, I guess there's no helping it. I'll be sure to give you a kiss of apology when we meet, just in case that thought did cross your mind. ;)_

_Your girlfriend (I hope),_

_Shizuru_

Natsuki closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, while she tried to ignore the blush growing in her cheeks. Shizuru's handwriting was nothing like the Maiden's. It wasn't absolute proof that she wasn't the Maiden, as there were of course ways to modify one's handwriting, but it was enough for now. Unable to contain her smile, Natsuki hastily scribbled a reply to Shizuru.

_See you there. Just watch it with those kisses. My cheeks may be fair game, but you've got your work cut out for you if you want my lips._

_Your girlfriend,_

_Natsuki_

It wasn't until Natsuki had sent the message off that she realized just how much trouble she'd gotten herself into when Shizuru read that. She just wished that she actually felt like she regretted it. That would have been a lot less frustrating.

X-X-X

_Hey there, everyone, it's Akane. Profile time!_

_Name: Midori Al-Aswad_

_Age: 17_

_Nationality: Aswad_

_Profile: I haven't been able to get too much information on Midori's youth, and I didn't want to risk raising any suspicions by asking her directly, sorry. But anyways, I can say a bit about the Aswad, at least. They're a tribe of scavengers, which makes them the odd mix of being both nomads and technologically advanced._

_The reason for this behavior is due to the plague that's been afflicting them for the past century or so. They've been desperately searching old ruins in hopes of finding a cure left behind somewhere, though they've come up short. The best they could do was to hold it off. They got pretty desperate a couple decades ago, and they staged a series of raids against Garderobe to try to steal the technology here – not realizing that the technology would all be completely useless to them without a Shinso to power it._

_Before things got too bad, a truce was reached, thanks primarily to the efforts of our own Professor Sayers. I'll have to ask her for the details on that later. I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing. But anyways, the result was that Garderobe would provide a few Otome specializing in mediation to work at treating and possibly curing Aswad's plague, and in return Aswad would provide a few of their engineers to help improve the technology Garderobe uses._

_Back to Midori now. She was the first Aswad to enter Garderobe, and she initially tried to study mediation in hopes that she could help find a cure. However, she turned out to have zero talent in this area and switched over to majoring in scholarship, focusing on history and archeology. To be honest, I kind of thought this was a waste of a Garderobe education to focus her studies in the one major that doesn't require any magic use, but I learned today just what she plans to do with it. Basically, she wants to be what she calls a "ruin crawler," which entails going into the most dangerous ruins she can for research/excavation/scavenging. I didn't realize till now just how dangerous some of those places are, so I guess her choice does make sense, particularly for an Aswad._

_Bonded Child: Gakutenou, the Charger-Wolf_

_Fighting Style: I've never seen her fight myself, but from what I hear she's the offensive type, only a fair bit more cautious than Haruka. She knows her limits, and so she fights a bit smarter. She's still not the type to feel any fear or hesitation, though._

_Why she might be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-Flaming red hair, almost a perfect match for how the Maiden is described._

_-After the flirting I saw her do today, I could believe she'd do what the Maiden has done_

_Why she might not be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-Her attitude doesn't quite fit in with Pearl in Mai's story._

_-Not exactly a reason yet, but she'll be off on an expedition in a couple weeks, so if the Maiden does anything in that time, we'll be able to rule her out._

_Suspicion level: I'd give her a medium. Attitude and red hair are a pretty good match, only thing that really doesn't fit is Mai's story. I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on her from now on._

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** There you go! I certainly hope that was worth the wait. Some big answers here, but of course more questions. However, I can tell you now that we're through the big opening part of this fic, where a ton of characters are introduced and questions raised. Things will settle down and you'll get some more answers from here on out.

Poll in my profile has been reset. Make your opinion heard!

**Impatient for updates?** I'm trying out something new, where I can share my incomplete chapters with anxious readers via buzzword. If you're interested, let me know through a PM and give me an e-mail address to use (you'll need to sign up with it). All I ask in return is that you keeping reading, and make sure to drop a review or two. ;)


	9. Cobalt Night

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the wait in getting to this, but I promise it will be worth it! Won't spoil anymore, so just go ahead and read and enjoy!

As always, many thanks to my beta, yuri-hime!

Poll results for last chapter:

Shizuru - 10

Undecided/Unsure - 5

Nao - 4

Other - 3

More than one person - 2

Midori - 1

Haruka - 0

Mai - 0

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 8:** Cobalt Night

X-X-X

_Arika Sayers' Garderobe Cheat Sheet_

_Page 1: Types of magic ("Available majors," as the school calls it)_

_Abjuration: Enhancement and protective spells. Creating a big shield to absorb attack, turning your skin to stone to make it tougher to hurt you, increasing your own agility or strength. Zoned out a bit in the explanation of it. Ask more later._

_Conjuration: Creation and manipulation of matter. Making food and water to help the poor, or if you're the more evil type, creating weapons out of thin air, like darts to throw at an enemy. Everyone has to take a little of this in Crystal year to design their own "Element." Also works for remote manipulation of matter. An advanced form of this has been simplified into the "Duelspace" spell they teach all students here so we get our own private zone to duel in without risking damage to anyone else. Pretty damn cool, but it must have been quite a trick to design such a spell._

_Divination: Contact with the spirit world through "channeling." Mostly just good for talking with spirits and finding out info from them, though I think some masters can do a type of spirit attack in duels. Also used for more mundane info gathering, like spying into another room, though that's banned in Garderobe. Lame. I've heard rumors that some students have figured out ways around this ban, so I'll have to watch myself. That and see if I can get them to tell me how. Just imagine, being able to watch Shizuru Viola in the shower... *drools*_

_Evocation: Creation and manipulation of energy. Attacking with big fireballs and stuff. Probably the best major for combat, but is that what I really want to go into? Maybe I should just go with what I seem to be good at. Or whatever works best for spying on Shizuru... Gah, I really should stop doing that! If her girlfriend finds out, I'm dead. Natsuki's scary..._

_Illusion: Faking out your opponent with false images, sounds, whatever really. Even false memories if you're really good, though that's completely evil if done on someone else. And no, I am not going to talk about using an illusion to create a naked Shizuru to ogle. Not at all._

_Mediation: Healing spells, pretty much. Why they don't just call it healing beats me. But at least it doesn't provide any temptation that might get me killed by Natsuki, so maybe it's the safest choice._

**November 17, 1406**

"Ara Natsuki, what do you say we make our sparring a little more interesting to give you an extra incentive?" Shizuru said. A gentle breeze played with her hair as she said this. Natsuki hadn't noticed any wind in their Duelspace before, so she suspected that Shizuru had conjured it just for this effect. Coupling that with the image of flowers and sakura trees Shizuru had set up in the background, Natsuki was certain that Shizuru was trying to remind her of their first meeting.

Although she appreciated the thought behind the imagery, Natsuki was starting to recognize that tone of Shizuru's as trouble. Add to that the tilt of her head and her too-innocent-to-be-true smile, and it was a guarantee that Natsuki was in for it. And yet, something in her insisted on walking, eyes wide open, into Shizuru's trap. "What did you have in mind?"

"Strip sparring."

"What!?" Natsuki shrieked. "You can't be serious! We haven't even had our first kiss yet and you want to play a strip game? And don't think I don't know that you fully expect to win – you've got a year on me after all. There's no way I'm... I'm..." Natsuki trailed off when Shizuru burst into laughter. Her face quickly filled with a blush, and then it got worse when she reflected on just how easily she fell for the tease. What was worst though, was just how much she enjoyed the sound of Shizuru's laughter and the little flutter in her chest at hearing it. "Shizuru!"

"Ahem... Forgive me, Natsuki," Shizuru said when she could get control of her laughter. "But you're just too precious sometimes. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were being this adorable on purpose."

Natsuki froze at this comment. "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

Shizuru looked surprised by this reply. She blinked a couple times, slowly, as she considered it. Finally, her face broke out into a grin and she bounded forward to grab Natsuki in a hug. "Ara! My Natsuki is too sweet that she would be this cute for me!"

Natsuki flailed her arms outwards, trying to escape from Shizuru's grasp. She cried out a muffled "What? No!" into Shizuru's chest, but she doubted Shizuru could hear it. Before long, she gave up. There was really no use resisting. Her subconscious had been betraying her long enough that she might as well just try to make the most of it. _Like right now, I can enjoy the feeling of Shizuru's soft breasts against my face... Wait, where'd they go?_

"Thank you, Natsuki," Shizuru said as she backed off, giving Natsuki a quick kiss to her forehead. "I think you deserve a special treat for that. How about I spot you two pieces of clothing?"

"Huh?" Natsuki said. When Shizuru's hands started to unbutton her blouse, Natsuki's mind finally caught up to what she was getting at. "No! No, you don't have to do that. It's alright, we're even, okay?"

Fortunately, Shizuru stopped unbuttoning her blouse, but unfortunately she put on a pout and said, "Ikezu. Isn't Natsuki attracted to me?"

Natsuki scrambled to mount a defense to this accusation. "No, that's not it! Just not this soon. I mean, um..." Realizing she'd been had again when she caught the glint in Shizuru's eye, Natsuki stopped talking and glared at her girlfriend for a moment. "I swear, you're going to drive me crazy one of these days. Can we just get back to sparring? Preferably while fully clothed, so I don't die from too much blood rushing to my face?"

"Ara, whatever Natsuki wants," Shizuru said, just barely able to contain her laughter, it seemed. "Would she like to start practicing attack or defense? Or perhaps just duel?"

"Hmm, well I do need to do some work on defense, but I'd like to practice some attacks first," Natsuki said, trying not to swoon under the influence of Shizuru's laughter. Focusing on sparring was probably the best way to handle that, she figured. "Mai can never keep up her defenses long enough to really give me a challenge. Hopefully you can do better than that."

Shizuru gave a small pout at this. "Does Natsuki think so little of me that she doubts I'll be able to keep up with her? Ikezu..."

Natsuki was sure that Shizuru was just toying with her, but that didn't stop the pang in her heart at hearing Shizuru's feigned offense. It also didn't stop her from instinctively trying to cover herself. "No! I don't mean that! It's just, I've never really sparred with you before, so I don't know how good you are yet. I just didn't want to risk hurting you!" _Yes! Perfect excuse!_

Natsuki was expecting Shizuru to either just accept this with a comment about how sweet she was, or to find some way to argue the point and further her tease. What she wasn't expecting out of Shizuru was a whimper. "No fair... Natsuki's being too cute," Shizuru said, giving a small pout.

Natsuki froze, her cheeks quickly filling with a blush. Her first instinct was to argue with Shizuru, but that would have just been mean. Shizuru was her girlfriend, it was expected she'd say things like that. Natsuki just didn't know how to take it. She didn't consider herself cute, but if Shizuru did... well, that was good, wasn't it? "Um... thanks, I guess..." Just saying that made Natsuki blush even more. At least Shizuru would appreciate the blush, if nothing else.

Before Natsuki knew what was happening, she'd been caught once more in one of Shizuru's hugs. At least this time she had the presence of mind to wrap her arms around Shizuru as well so she couldn't escape so easily. And she was certainly taking the opportunity to enjoy the feeling of Shizuru's breasts against her face. They were just too soft not to enjoy it. Shizuru seemed to be enjoying the hug as well, nuzzling into Natsuki's hair and giving her a kiss on the top of her head, prompting an immediate smile from Natsuki.

_This is nice, but... we really should do some sparring. Must remember to invite her over later for some private time..._

"Natsuki?"

"Hmm?"

"Is it alright with you if we get to the sparring now? We can do this type of thing later, when we don't have the distractions of our responsibilities weighing on us."

Natsuki blinked her eyes in confusion. Had Shizuru just read her mind? Couldn't be. Just a coincidence. Pushing herself gently out of the hug, Natsuki looked up into Shizuru's eyes and said, "I guess. When's good for you?"

Shizuru smiled, and Natsuki tried to read her expression as she thought on it. It actually seemed to Natsuki that she was only pretending to think – she must have already had something in mind. "Is Natsuki free later tonight? Say, around eleven or so?"

"Sure!" Natsuki said, without even thinking about it. When her mind did catch up to her mouth, she remembered that she'd been planning to work around that time, but she could easily put it off until after her date with Shizuru. She'd gone without working too much lately, and her funds wouldn't last much longer. She'd just have to try and merge her schoolwork with Shizuru-time as much as possible, and cut into her sleep when that wasn't enough.

"Perfect," Shizuru said, her smile widening ever so slightly. "Now, Natsuki. Show me what you've got. Let's see how long it takes you to break through one of my shields." Shizuru backed up a few steps from Natsuki and swung her left hand in a quick circle then thrust it forwards, forming a pale shield in front of her.

Natsuki couldn't help but be impressed with the fluidity of Shizuru's motions. She was definitely a natural at this. She'd have to make sure she did her best to impress Shizuru as well, and she knew just the way to do it. Shifting into a battle stance, Natsuki focused on evoking an orb of coldness into her hands. She skipped all the tricks the school taught to students about how to form an object made of ice, forgoing all spells designed for this purpose. She just wanted the pure, distilled essence of ice created by nothing but the most instinctual evocation of cold.

In a matter of seconds, Natsuki held a pale blue orb of magic between her hands. It was pure potential, just waiting for another dose of magic to give it form. However, that was just what Natsuki needed to watch out for. She couldn't shoot it like a missile as that would transform it into a shard of ice. Instead, she had to guide the orb directly, manually moving the ball of energy into Shizuru's shield at as great a speed as she could manage. It took a fair bit of focus, meaning this maneuver would be quite risky in an actual battle, but it worked well enough for just impressing Shizuru.

As the orb struck Shizuru's shield, it reacted with the spell Shizuru had used to form it. A barrier of ice grew from Shizuru's hand as Natsuki's ice magic enhanced her shield. Before continuing, Natsuki took the chance to see what Shizuru thought of this. She wanted to watch Shizuru's expression as she made her move.

Shizuru was currently blinking in surprise as she studied her enhanced shield. "Ara ara... Should I be thanking Natsuki for empowering my shield?"

"Heh, not quite," Natsuki said. She raised her hand and, purely for the dramatic effect, snapped her fingers. Shizuru's shield shattered in front of her, shards of ice raining down over her hand and evaporating into mist as the magic left them.

Shizuru blinked again, even more confused. She waved her hand around for a moment to confirm that her shield was gone, and then she looked over at Natsuki and said, "Alright, you have me stumped. What was that, Natsuki?"

"Just my personal shield-breaking technique," Natsuki said. She smirked at Shizuru, having finally been able to one-up her upperclassman. She'd pay for it in teases later she was sure, but it was easily worth it. Shizuru looked so cute right now as she pouted at Natsuki's non-explanation, it was all Natsuki could do not to run over and hug her, but that would have just brought her down to Shizuru's level. Besides, they really did need to stop distracting themselves.

"Ikezu. That doesn't tell me how Natsuki did it at all," Shizuru said.

"Secret," Natsuki said, squeezing her lips together to suppress her grin as much as she could. An idea suddenly occurred to her, and her grin faded. It was the perfect chance to let Shizuru come clean, if she was indeed the Crimson Maiden. She didn't know how she'd take it if it was indeed Shizuru, but admitting it would at least be a point in her favor. If she was just waiting for the right time, Natsuki would give it to her. "Tell ya what, though. You tell me a secret of yours, and I'll tell you this. If the secret's big enough, I'll even throw in something else of my own."

Perhaps Shizuru caught the serious tone in Natsuki's voice, as a flash of seriousness hit her face. It was quickly gone though, covered with her usual mask. "Ara, a tempting offer, Natsuki. Particularly as any secrets would come out sooner or later if we do continue our relationship," Shizuru said. She tilted her head and put a finger to her chin as she considered the offer. "I do know a lot of good secrets, but all the best are other people's, so they're not mine to share."

"Well, just give me one of yours then," Natsuki said. She watched Shizuru's eyes closely for any sign of deceit in them. She was hard to read, but Natsuki was pretty sure that Shizuru didn't intend to lie to her in any way. There did seem to be some nervousness there, though.

"...Alright," Shizuru said at last. She looked at Natsuki with a serious gaze. "I do have one secret that Natsuki should hear."

Shizuru was silent for a bit, though she seemed to be fighting to get the words out. She opened her mouth to start speaking a few times, but then quickly closed it. She must have been just searching for the right words, or possibly the courage. "It's alright, Shizuru," Natsuki said, hoping to calm her girlfriend's nerves. "You don't have to word it perfectly. Not for me, at least."

"Natsuki's too sweet," Shizuru said. She closed her eyes, and Natsuki could see a blush starting to form on her cheeks. She also caught a speck of red below Shizuru's nose, but Shizuru quickly sniffed it back in. Natsuki was just about to ask her if her nose was bleeding when Shizuru continued, "I just hope she won't take offense to this."

"It's okay..." Natsuki said. "But are you alright?"

"Oh, it's just a little nosebleed," Shizuru said with a reassuring smile. She took a moment to chant out a quick spell to help stop the bleed. "The air's pretty dry this time of year, so I get those from time to time. Nothing a little spell can't fix."

"Ah, okay," Natsuki said. _And I will accept that explanation. No thoughts of why else her nose might be bleeding..._

"Okay, my secret..." Shizuru said, taking another breath. "Since meeting Natsuki, I've been having dreams about her..." Another spot of blood appeared below Shizuru's nose, but it was quickly sniffed back up. "Some of which were a bit... intimate."

With all the blood in Natsuki's body rushing to her face, she didn't have the ability to move a single muscle in response to this, even to protest. It took her a good minute before she was able to get out a weak, "Okay..."

Shizuru looked worried for a moment, but an impish grin spread across her face at Natsuki's response. "So Natsuki doesn't mind?"

"Er, well..." Natsuki said, trying to see if she could come up with an excuse to mind Shizuru's dreams. But really, she'd already figured that Shizuru was probably talking with her own Dream Natsuki. The "intimate" revelation was news, though. The problem was, if Shizuru's Dream Natsuki was letting her get away with it, could she really protest? _Wait, yes I can! She's thinking of me, not some other Natsuki! Ugh, but I can't be mad at what her subconscious does... or does it count as her conscious if it's with a Dream Natsuki? Gah, this is too confusing!_

_Okay, simplify. Shizuru is dreaming of me: Sweet. Shizuru is thinking of... doing things with me: Flattering, I guess. Not like she's bringing it up except when asked for a secret. Can I really fault her for having a sex drive? I mean, it's not like I haven't just buried my face in her breasts twice today... Gah! Bad thoughts, don't go there!_

"Ara...! Natsuki's being cute for me again!" Shizuru cooed.

"Huh?" Natsuki was broken out of her thoughts by this. If her face could have gotten any redder at that point, it certainly would have. She tried to shake the blush clear from her cheeks, but it refused to budge. With an internal sigh, she said, "I guess it's alright, Shizuru. Not like you're pushing me in real life. Besides, I dream about you too... just not quite that intimately. Just promise not to remind me about those dreams of yours again, or I can promise you'll never experience that in real life!"

Natsuki really should have known better than to say that. She really, really should have. "Ara?" Shizuru said, unable to contain her grin. "Does that mean I will be able to if I keep quiet about them, Na-tsu-ki?"

"I am _not_ answering that!" Natsuki said, beyond caring how red her face got at this point. "Now can we please get back to sparring before I regret asking for a secret?"

"Ara... I guess," Shizuru said. Natsuki couldn't help but catch the twinkle in her eyes that told her she was loving this to death. "But didn't Natsuki promise me a secret of her own?"

"Fine, fine..."

X-X-X

_Haruka,_

_I have a confession to make. For a while now, I've had feelings for you. You're more than just a friend to me. I have no idea if you feel the same way for me, or even if you can, but as my friend you deserve to know this. I just hope you can accept this in me, and we can still be friends._

_Your friend,_

_Yukino_

She almost had it. There was no point in mincing words with Haruka, so keeping it short was best. Yukino just needed to make sure that every word was perfect. She must have read through that one paragraph a dozen times before she settled on changing the word "confession" to "admission." A few more dozen times, and she tweaked up the punctuation, exchanging dashes for commas.

It didn't really matter, though. Not like punctuation would make any difference to Haruka. It was as good as it was going to get. She just had to give it to Haruka and hope for the best.

_Not today, though. Don't have to do it today. One step at a time. Just print it out for now, give it to her tomorrow... or another day. Soon._

Yukino could see her cursor shaking slightly as she moved it across the screen. Just printing the letter was an ordeal, but she pushed through. It was just a little frightening though: If she was this nervous printing it out, could she ever get up the courage to give it to Haruka?

_No. I have to. It will be harder to live without telling her, in the long run. Just think of the good that might come if she feels the same way..._

Almost of its own accord, Yukino's finger moved down to click the mouse button, and the letter started to print.

X-X-X

There was no way Nao was slipping out undetected this time. Irina had set up wards covering every inch of Garderobe's perimeter. Unless Nao was airlifted out or had some secret tunnel, there was no way she could get by without tripping at least one of them. All Irina had to do was wait, then set off to pursue her before Nao left Garderobe's grounds and the ward's tracking spell faded. Worst case scenario, Nao detected the wards and disabled one before leaving. But even in that case, Irina would be able to figure out where she was exiting the school so she could stake out that spot on a later night.

While she waited, Irina had taken a chance to set up a viewer-friendly display to monitor her wards. She'd printed out a map of Garderobe's campus, and she'd set up her wards' indicators to lie at positions around the map matching where she'd set up the wards. _There really should be an easier way to do this type of monitoring,_ she considered. _Perhaps I'll have to design a spell to do this all for me once I graduate. It could be quite useful for Otome who work security._

One thing was for sure: Irina wasn't going into that field herself. The only word to describe this type of activity was "boring." If she was allowed a few more words, she'd expand it to "tediously, mind-numbingly boring." Playing detective could be fun at times, but this wasn't it. A job in security would mean doing this every single working hour. It wasn't going to happen.

Irina was so distracted by the boredom that she almost missed it when one of the lights on her map winked out. As soon as the meaning of it dawned on her, she scrambled to see where it was on the map that Nao had disabled her ward. It turned out to be a point on the eastern wall, just south of the gym. Irina was about to grab up her map, but something struck her as odd with it. It took a moment, but she realized that that wasn't the only light that had gone off. The ward she'd placed at the main entrance to Garderobe had been deactivated as well, it seemed.

_Perhaps someone else left through there and saw it..._ Irina thought. _Any faculty member would have no problem spotting it, and could deactivate it with ease. That's also where they'd likely leave the campus. The east wall is still probably my best bet for Nao... wait a second..._

As Irina was gazing at her map, a light along the northern wall also vanished. Before she had any time to guess at the reason for that, the one right beside it disappeared as well. And then one on the south wall was gone. The pace picked up, and within mere seconds, every single one of her wards had been deactivated.

_I think I'm going to have to come up with a new tactic._

X-X-X

"Oh come on," Natsuki said. "Can I at least open my eyes for climbing this hill? That would be a lot easier."

"Nope!" Shizuru said. Just the tone of her voice told Natsuki that she was grinning as she said this. "Though my offer still stands to carry Natsuki, if she's changed her mind about that."

Natsuki had to let out a sigh at this. There was just no stopping Shizuru sometimes. There was one thing she hadn't tried, though it was a bit risky. _Meh, what's life without a little danger sometimes._ "Fine," she said as she came to a stop. "I'm calling your bluff. Carry me."

There was a moment of silence where Natsuki imagined a stunned look on Shizuru's face. Sadly, that was all the victory she was allowed. "Ara!" Shizuru said with glee in her voice that caused Natsuki's heart to sink in fear. "I thought Natsuki would never ask!"

_Shit..._ Natsuki thought, though she made no move to avoid Shizuru. It would have been pointless anyways, as she couldn't open her eyes to evade without ruining whatever Shizuru had in mind. _Not like I could see much of anything in this dark of night anyways... _"Ah!" Natsuki had been expecting Shizuru to lift her up using her skills with conjuration, so she was taken by surprise when Shizuru swept her up into her arms bridal style. The fact that she wrapped her arms around Shizuru in turn was purely for support. "Oi! Why aren't you just using your magic?" Natsuki demanded in an effort to save face.

"More fun this way," Shizuru said. She gave Natsuki a quick kiss on the forehead and started to climb the hill. Natsuki was torn between trying not to blush and marveling at Shizuru's strength. Her dilemma was soon solved though, when Shizuru stopped after only a few more paces and said, "We're here."

Natsuki scrambled in Shizuru's grasp until she was able to work her way out and stand up. She opened her eyes just so she could glare at her girlfriend. "You could have just told me we were this close, you know!"

Shizuru pouted. "Less fun that way." Natsuki rolled her eyes at this, and Shizuru's pout faded in an instant. "But doesn't Natsuki want to look at her surprise?"

Natsuki blinked at Shizuru as she processed this, and then she rapidly looked around the area to see if she could figure out what Shizuru was talking about. There was nothing to see though, on a night as dark as this. The moon wasn't even up to help her see by. It was really a minor miracle she could even see Shizuru right now. "I give up, what is it?"

"Look up," Shizuru said.

Natsuki responded by rolling her eyes. Of course Shizuru wouldn't be straightforward at this point. When was she ever? But Natsuki did relent and look upwards, not surprised in the slightest when she saw nothing but the stars in the sky. "Alright, what am I looking f- Oh." As Natsuki watched the sky, a shooting star flashed across her vision. A few seconds later, she saw another one streak by.

While Natsuki was enraptured by the sight, Shizuru came up beside her and wrapped an arm around her. "What do you think, Natsuki?"

The feeling of Shizuru's body up next to Natsuki's caused a wave of warmth to shoot through her, catching in her throat. For a moment, it prevented her from speaking, so she just wrapped her own arm around Shizuru in response. "Uhh... it's... nice..." she said, her voice cracking. What was coming over her right now? Well, that was obvious: Shizuru was having some effect on her. It just hadn't ever been this bad before.

Natsuki was afraid that Shizuru might take her comment the wrong way, as if she didn't like it and was just trying to be polite. She didn't seem to, though. She just leaned into Natsuki, pressing their bodies even more tightly together and causing the feeling in Natsuki's chest to get even worse, and she started to stroke her hand slowly up and down Natsuki's back. "There's a meteor shower this week. With the new moon, tonight's the best for viewing it. This spot is pretty high up, so it should give us a nice view. I'm just glad the sky is clear tonight."

"Yeah..." Natsuki said. She tried to let herself relax, not fighting the feelings anymore. She just gazed up into the sky as she watched for meteors, holding Shizuru close to her the whole time. "Thanks for bringing me."

"Of course, Natsuki," Shizuru said. "Would you like to sit down for a bit?"

"Sure," Natsuki said. She only realized after saying this that it would require separating from Shizuru for a moment, but she made sure that as soon as they were both seated on the grass she got her arm back around Shizuru. She even rested her head on Shizuru's shoulder for good measure. As another shooting star crossed her view, Natsuki said, "Hey Shizuru, you ever hear that if you make a wish on a shooting star, it'll come true?"

"Of course," Shizuru said. She gave Natsuki a quick kiss on the top of her head and said, "But I wouldn't think Natsuki to be the type to believe in such things."

"I'm not, but... I dunno. What would you wish for if it were true?" Natsuki asked.

"Mmm..." Shizuru rested her head on top of Natsuki's as she thought on this. "But if it is true, then I can't tell Natsuki what I'm wishing for, right? If I do it definitely won't come true."

Natsuki smiled at this. Or perhaps she was just smiling from the position she was in with Shizuru. It didn't matter, really. "Heh, alright then. You can make a wish if you want, just let me know if it does come true."

"Alright then," Shizuru said. After a few moments in thought she said, "Natsuki can make a wish too, you know."

"Heh, I'll need some time to think on that..." Natsuki said.

"We have all night," Shizuru replied. "Well, at least until we need to sleep."

"Hmm," Natsuki said, stifling the yawn that this comment triggered in her. She certainly could use some sleep, but she wasn't going to let it show. _Okay, think about what she asked: What would I wish for? Easy answer: For Shizuru to not be the Crimson Maiden. But why does that wish leave such a bad taste in my mouth? I trust Shizuru... I think. I don't really suspect her anymore... so why do I need to wish at all?_

Natsuki let out a soft sigh which she hoped Shizuru didn't catch. _It would just be fear. The only reason I'd wish that is if I still feared that Shizuru was the Crimson Maiden and this all isn't real. Do I still fear that? If it's the case, then Shizuru is lying to me by not saying anything. I don't want to think she's holding anything back from me. Even if it's uncomfortable, like that secret she gave me earlier today, better I know it than not... I just want to know all about her. That's all I can really wish for._

The sound of Shizuru sniffling caught Natsuki's attention. "Sorry," Shizuru said, bring a hand up to her nose. "Dry air again."

"Sure it is," Natsuki said, rolling her eyes. _Or maybe knowing all about her will involve knowing just how often her thoughts drift "that" way. Fine, make it: I wish to know everything about her that doesn't make her nosebleed. That work?_ Another shooting star crossed the sky as Natsuki said this. Perhaps that meant her wish was granted.

"Mmm, there we go," Shizuru said as she was able to get her nosebleeding under control with a quick spell. "Sorry if I ruined the moment, Natsuki..."

"No," Natsuki said. She pulled out a bit so she could look into Shizuru's face. "It's fine. Thank you for this. It's really quite romantic." She didn't really know where the words came from, but they flowed so easily once she looked at Shizuru.

"Natsuki..." Shizuru said. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but Natsuki thought that she could see Shizuru blushing slightly. She was really so beautiful when she blushed. If Natsuki looked anything like that, then it was really no wonder Shizuru tried to make her blush so often.

_Does that mean Shizuru thinks I'm beautiful then?_ Natsuki wondered. She looked into Shizuru's eyes to try and find out, seeing nothing but adoration from the other girl. There was a softness there too, as if she were entranced by the sight of Natsuki. _Is that... love? Maybe... the beginning of it at least._ Natsuki felt a rush in her chest at this thought, and the warmth in her cheeks let her know that she was blushing for Shizuru's benefit now.

Natsuki held Shizuru's gaze for a long while, feeling like she was being drawn into Shizuru's eyes. She wasn't sure if she was moving closer to Shizuru, or if Shizuru was coming closer to her, but she suspected it was both. It didn't matter, really. But now that she knew it was happening, she made sure that she was definitely moving forward herself. There was no way she was going to just go along passively with this. She wanted this, and she wanted Shizuru to know it.

The last thing Natsuki saw before her eyes closed was the sparkle of joy in Shizuru's eyes, shining clearly even in this dark night. She captured the image in her mind just as she captured Shizuru's lips with her own. Natsuki's heart jumped in her chest as she realized she was sharing her first kiss with Shizuru.

But as exciting as that realization may have been, Natsuki soon forgot all about it as she could think of nothing other than the feeling of Shizuru's lips against her own. They felt so soft and delicate, and yet there was a strength to them. Shizuru seemed to know just what she wanted, and what she wanted was Natsuki. It was the perfect mix of tenderness and strength, just like Shizuru herself.

Natsuki was drowning in Shizuru, and she only wanted more. She reached her her hands around the back of her girlfriend's head, pulling her closely as she tried to kiss Shizuru more ferociously. She really had no idea how she was supposed to go about this, so she just tried to do whatever felt best. She played with Shizuru's lips against her own so she could experience their sweet softness again. She even brought her tongue forward so she could taste her girlfriend's lips. Much to her delight, she found that they tasted much like the green tea Shizuru had introduced her to a few days ago.

This was one time when Natsuki didn't regret the fact that her actions just encouraged Shizuru. Shizuru's tongue came out to meet hers, the surprising softness of it causing Natsuki to involuntarily let out a gasp. She didn't want to give the wrong impression though, so she brought her lips back to kiss Shizuru's tongue and let her play with them the way Natsuki had with Shizuru's lips. Natsuki could feel herself melting under the tenderness of Shizuru's touch. Any doubts she had left about Shizuru were washed away; there was simply no way such sweetness could come from anything but pure affection.

Natsuki loosened the grasp of her hands on the back of Shizuru's head, bringing her arms down so she could wrap them around her girlfriend's back. Pushing her lips forward to give Shizuru a final peck, she pulled her face back just enough so that she could get a look at Shizuru. The blush on the girl's cheeks was just priceless at the moment, and Natsuki's heart leaped in her chest upon knowing that she was the cause of it.

"Natsuki?" Shizuru said softly. Her eyes sparkled with barely-restrained happiness.

"Yeah?"

"My wish came true."

X-X-X

_Sorry, Akira, I wasn't able to find too much information on Fuuka. It seems that most of the records were destroyed some years after, probably out of national embarrassment. The only thing we really have to go on is a journal entry made by a visiting student who ended up moving to Lutetia before the record purging. It's written in a regional dialect of Zipango that's no longer in use, so I had one of my scholars do the translation for you, just to be sure we won't miss any subtleties. There doesn't seem to be much that can help right now, but once you get to Fuuka, perhaps this will come in handy._

_**Translator's Note: At His Highness's request, I've translated this into Lutetian rather than modern Zipango. It's less accurate of a translation, but it will be readable by the other members of the expedition, should you choose to share this with them. Upon your or His Highness's request, I can do another translation into modern Zipango, if you so wish.**_

_March 2, 814 __**(Converted from old Zipango calendar)**_

_Returned from Fuuka today. Something is really going wrong there. Everyone seems to have gone insane. They've all lost their own identities and have let themselves become the characters they've invented. These characters all seem to share the same naming pattern: A color, usually with a fancy name rather than just "Red" or "Blue," and then their character's role. So, we get characters like the Jade Ninja, who dueled with the Topaz Guardian over her right to leave campus grounds on some sort of mission. Their appearances all seemed to change too, so I was left unable to locate my friend amongst all these characters._

_A couple of things kept coming up in the discussions that didn't make too much sense. Everyone seemed to be preparing for an event called the "Shadowfall." __**(That's my best approximation. It could just as easily by Shade-landing, Dark descent, etc. I just went with this as it works best as a single word in Lutetian, as the original was combined into one word.)**__ No one was clear on what exactly this was, and I doubt they even know. The other thing that kept coming up was the "Obsidian Lord," who seemed to be the only male character ever mentioned. However, he was nowhere to be found, by me or anyone else there. How did he still play a role in all their drama? I have no idea._

_The climax of my stay there was a battle between the Cobalt Knight and the Crimson Maiden. The backstory seemed to be that the Crimson Maiden had been tricking people into high-stakes duels, where she would take advantage of them upon her victory. The Cobalt Knight had refused her request, but the Crimson Maiden pressed her, trying to manipulate her into accepting. Eventually, the Cobalt Knight did accept when she was confident that she could defeat the Maiden._

_It ended up being quite an impressive duel, but eventually the Cobalt Knight won. Oddly, the Crimson Maiden seemed pleased with this as she began to remove the remnants of her clothes and offer herself to the Cobalt Knight – all in view of the spectators. I was about to avert my eyes from this, but fortunately the Cobalt Knight made her stop before she completely exposed herself. The Cobalt Knight said that she would not take the Crimson Maiden. Her heart belonged to another, and being taken as a prize was just what the Crimson Maiden wanted anyways._

_I would have stayed longer after this, but things started to get a bit frightening. The students there began to include me in their drama. I was the Azure Doctor, much to my protestations that I hadn't completed my schooling yet. When I became a factor in one of the duels they were preparing for, I'd had enough. I got out of there as fast as I could._

_Perhaps I'll try to get someone to look into this. I fear for the girls there. Something bad is coming. I just hope that Midori will come out of it alright._

X-X-X

_Enter master detective, Irina Woods, once more!_

_I'm sorry for being a bit late in getting this, but Nao's been a particularly hard nut to crack. Unfortunately, this means that a lot of what I have is still just rumors and suspicions, so we'll have to deal with that._

_Name: Juliet Nao Zhang, but for your own good, _never_ call her Juliet._

_Age: 15_

_Nationality: Artai_

_Profile: All I've really been able to get of her background is that she never knew her father, and her mother was in some sort of accident not long before she came to Garderobe. I think she's doing some work outside of school to cover her own expenses, as she seems to disappear a lot at night, though she's too good at covering her tracks for me to figure out where she's off to._

_She doesn't have any friends that I know of, but I'm starting to expect that, against all common sense, she has something of a crush on Natsuki. Mikoto's noticed her surreptitiously watching our table from time to time, and I believe it's mostly when we're all there. Mikoto says she's never noticed it during our study break in the afternoon, which Natsuki never shows up for. On top of that, I've noticed there seems to be a little tension between her and Shizuru the last couple of days, though mostly just on Nao's end. Shizuru may suspect something, but she's a lot better at keeping her calm in public. I doubt she'd even see Nao as a threat, anyways. All I really know is that Nao seems to try to avoid Shizuru when she can._

_Bonded Child: Julia, the Seductress-Spider_

_Fighting Style: Disables her opponent using her own spells or Julia's webs, then goes in to strike the killing blow. She's particularly attached to Julia, and I haven't heard any students say they've ever dueled her when she used another Child, even when she was up against something like Yatagarasu which would be completely immune to its webs._

_Why she might be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-She acts suspicious as hell. As a loner type, it seems just up her alley to take these kinds of actions in disguise._

_-Erstin tells me that the Maiden used Julia when she fought her, and used her quite well. Mind you, other students could do that as well, and Erstin wasn't exactly putting forth the best effort to win her duel, so her assessment may be off._

_Why she might not be the Crimson Maiden:_

_-She might not be good enough with other Childs to win with them, as we know the Maiden has._

_-Unlike our other suspects, she's just a Pearl, so we might not expect her to be as strong. I have my doubts she would have been able to defeat Mai, primarily._

_Suspicion level: High. She could easily just be masking her skill level. If you accept that, everything else seems to fit._

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** Hope you enjoyed. ;) Let me know what you think in the reviews!

**Impatient for updates?** I'm trying out something new, where I can share my incomplete chapters with anxious readers via buzzword. If you're interested, let me know through a PM and give me an e-mail address to use (you'll need to sign up with it). All I ask in return is that you keeping reading, and make sure to drop a review or two. ;)


	10. The Oracle

**Author's Note:** I bet you thought I'd abandoned this one, didn't you? Well, you were right. But I just can't leave it all unresolved. I'm going to try to at least get the rest of the plot out, forcing my way through writer's block by whatever means necessary. The format may not be as consistent, though – I'll just go with whatever's easiest for me to write at any given time. I hope you still enjoy it though.

I'll be posting updates to my blog first – link in my profile – and then adding chapters here once I have enough for a full chapter.

X-X-X

**Title:** Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 9:** The Oracle

X-X-X

_It's Nao. No, not the Crimson Maiden – well, maybe. I don't know that yet. I mean the Oracle. Irina's report made me suspect that it might be her, so I did some digging. I checked the school's registration records for the current Pearls and Crystals – with a little help from Yukino in hacking into the computer system – and there are only three students majoring in Channeling: Shiho Huit, Laura Bianchi, and Nao._

_Laura's completely in the clear. She's got plenty of friends to vouch for her – she rarely leaves campus without any of them, and her whereabouts are almost always accounted for. Besides, she comes from a rich family, so she has zero need to resort to crime. Shiho's a bit less definite. She's a loner, not particularly rich – though not as destitute as Nao must be – and seems to have a ridiculously chaotic schedule. It's mostly a gut judgment on my part that it can't be her – there's just no way she'd get along peacefully with the criminal element. Either they'd kill her out of frustration, or she'd quickly refuse to work with them._

_Granted, I'm still not completely sure it's Nao, but I'm sure enough to act. And I'll have to act quickly, before she catches wind of what I'm up to._

**November 18, 1406**

_Shizuru? Is that you?_

_Natsuki? Natsuki! I think it's working._

_It must be! How long has it been...? Less than a week?_

_I think so. It couldn't have been more than a couple of days between when we last talked and when this world's Natsuki and Shizuru first met._

_Sound right. ...Oi, do we have to talk about that now?_

_Ara, I guess not. Let's make the most of our time together._

_Thanks. Love you, Shizuru._

_I love you too, Natsuki._

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the night of November 18, 1406_

It took some work, but I was able to plant a bug on Nao. I was able to get Irina and Mikoto to help out with it – Irina staked out Nao's window to make sure Nao would exit through the door, and Mikoto barged down the hallway crying out for Mai when Nao left, dropping the bug as she crashed through her. She was pissed when that happened, I'm sure, but I doubt she suspected anything. It would have been easier if I could have just bugged her school clothes, but since I know she changes before leaving, I didn't have much of a choice.

For tracking Nao, I enlisted the help of Sara Gallagher. As it turns out, she's a biker as well. It's a bit easier to go unnoticed while biking than it is in a car, which played to our advantage. We started out by heading to the Rorschach bar, which lies on the edge of one of the more crime-ridden districts of Windbloom. The word on the street was that the Oracle operated out of this district. As it turned out, the word was a bit off. I don't know if Nao suspected she'd been bugged or what, but she set up shop in a different part of town than usual.

The plan hinged on catching Nao in the brief window between when she'd started to use her magic and when she'd been able to fully contact her spirit guide. Once she was in contact, the guide would likely alert Nao to the fact that we were chasing after her. If she had any time at all to prepare, we'd be toast. Nao would have a relic to power her magic, while we wouldn't have anything that could possibly defend against it. If she wanted to, she'd be able to wipe us off the face of Earl without a trace. I don't think she's the murderous type, but it wasn't a pleasant thought to entertain.

Of course, I wasn't going to give her a chance. My bike isn't the best you can get off the shelf; it's better. I was able to get just the right custom parts that allowed me to cut across Windbloom in the blink of an eye. I nearly crashed through the wall of the building that Nao was holing herself up in, but I was able to brake in time, if just barely. It took Sara a bit longer to catch up with me, and I was already able to see defensive spells being raised. I quickly signaled to Sara to start with our plan while I turned to the door into the building.

Nao had been using a relic of some sort to generate a hotspot for her to use magic in. While that would normally allow me to use magic as well, this particular hotspot had become attuned to Nao somehow. It would take all of one student's focus just to level the playing field - that was where Sara came in. We'd planned everything out ahead of time, so she got right to work. I swung the door open and looked into the building, periodically trying to use some simple divination spells to search for the presence of Nao.

I could almost hear the fabric of reality shudder as Sara's spell went into effect. In an instant, I could feel Nao's presence clearly. Without stopping to think, I ran after her, preparing an icicle within my hands as I did so. I knew that she'd sense this change in the hotspot, but I'd expected her to try to cover up whatever she was doing rather than fight back. I paid the price for this mistake - the door to the room she was in flew off its hinges and toward me. I was a moment slow in raising my shield, resulting in a bruised shoulder.

I wasn't going to let that slow me down though. At this point, it just made me angry. I didn't even give Nao a chance to surrender before I shot my icicle off at her, and I didn't even look to see if it had connected before I prepared another, turning to run toward her. Nao was quick, but when I launched a barrage of ice in her direction, she wasn't able to dodge it all. With glee, I noticed that one shard had lodged itself into her shoulder - in her hubris, she must have thought that she could dodge it all, without needing her shields.

"I knew you'd be here sooner or later, Kruger," Nao said, snarling at me. "If we're going to have it out, let's at least do this properly. A duel. You and me, whatever the hell forfeit the winner feels like."

I generated another bunch of icicles, fanning them out in my hand and pointing it toward Nao. "And why exactly should I agree to that?" I said. "I'm the one on the side of the law here. You won't be in a position to say 'no' if I beat you now."

Nao snorted at this. "Beat me? You might get close, but even if you pull a miracle out of your ass, I can always escape. It's far easier to run than to fight. But then we'd just end up doing this all again another night, and then another, and neither of us would ever get what we want. So with a duel, you can just beat me once and get it over with. Of course, I'll be stacking the deck in my favor in return for doing this for you, but don't expect any better than that if you ever want this to end."

Frustrating as it was, Nao was right. My Plan B was to get her outside the range of the hotspot, and then Sara and I could track her down without magic, but that was quite risky. And that didn't take into account the possibility that she might escape on her own, possibly even taking the relic with her. If that happened, I'd be completely out of luck. Perhaps a duel was my best bet indeed. I was better than her, and we both knew it. The only question was how much she'd stack the deck in her own favor. I wouldn't put anything past her at this point.

As I was still considering my options, Nao muttered a quick incantation to start the duel. I'm not the best at decoding magical spells, but I knew enough to figure out that the duelspace she was generating wasn't the standard. It would be something she was familiar with, but I wasn't. It was good enough. I could still beat her. Trusting my instincts, I accepted the duel as it was offered.

In a matter of seconds, I found myself in what seemed to be a forest at night. Of course that would be it. What better place to play to her Child, Julia's strengths? Well, I had my own tricks. I called out Duran to come to my aid, already commanding him to load a flash cartridge even before he'd fully materialized. I hesitated for a moment when he did appear, though - he was much bigger than he used to be. He used to come to my waist, but now he was easily as tall as I was. Dream Shizuru had mentioned that she could help power him up, but I hadn't been expecting the effect to be quite this obvious.

No matter. I could use it. "Let me up," I said. Duran bent his head down, and I climbed up onto his back and held on to his cannons. "Alright, Duran, fire!" I covered my eyes with an arm as the cartridge was shot out, then lowered it as soon as the blast began to clear. I scanned the area, both with my eyes and a bit of magic, until I could sense a presence. It was right behind me, and approaching fast. "Around! Load Chrome Cartridge!"

Duran spun around, loading up a round of ammunition. I prepared a few icicles in my hands, and I shot them off before I could even see what was approaching. "Fire!"

It's hard to describe what happened next. I wasn't able to see much of it, but I could hear a spider crying out in pain. This was followed moments later by Nao's voice: "Fucking bitch!"

"Charge, keep circling around, and blast through any webs," I commanded Duran. As he ran off, I used one hand to steady myself as I stood up. With my other hand, I readied a round of icicles to shoot off at Nao. I was barely able to shoot them all before a web hit me in the face, nearly knocking me off of Duran. Thankfully, Duran had broken through most of it on his own, so it wasn't able to capture me, but that wasn't too much solace when I found myself hanging from one of my dog's cannons. "Damnit, go after Julia, I'll get Nao," I told Duran.

With a bark, Duran obeyed. Hopefully he'd be able to make short work of her. As it turned out, I'd be hoping for that even more once I sensed a barrage of darts headed my way. I quickly raised my shield, but it wasn't soon enough to block all of them. One of the darts lodged itself in my shoulder. I could feel some sort of poison seeping into my body, and I was already getting weaker. But there was no way I was going to go down this easily. In a desperate move, I casted a frost spell on my own shoulder.

The spell did manage to stop the flow of the poison, but it was at the expense of my own arm. Within the duelspace, I was better able to ignore the pain, though even now, it wasn't easy. I had to do something quickly, or Nao's next attack could spell my end. Going with the first thing that came to mind, I casted a spell to generate an ice barrier around myself. Four walls appeared, encasing me within them, and blocking off any darts that might be headed my way. Once I was temporarily safe, I began to use my magic to search for Nao.

It wasn't as easy as I'd expected it to be. The darkness here wasn't natural; it dampened magical searching as well as sight. I was only able to pick up a faint echo of her. It wasn't precise, but I went with what I had. With a bit of focus, I generated a giant icicle from beneath where I thought Nao was and shot it upward.

"You'll have to do better than that, Kruger!" Nao called out. Her voice echoes throughout the woods, preventing me from getting a firm lock on her location. I don't even know what it was echoing off of - it must have been some other strange effect of this duelspace. It didn't make sense, though - I should have hit her. I could sense the icicle going right through where she was.

The only time I'd actually been able to hurt her or Julia was with Duran's Chrome Cartridge - a fire attack. Was ice useless here? No, that couldn't have been it. My frozen shoulder attested to that. More likely, Nao had figured out some spell to completely shield herself from ice attacks. But something like that couldn't come without a drawback. Going by Duran's one successful attack, then it was possible that it was a fire vulnerability.

Taking my chances, I searched out for Nao again. She was close. I'd probably only have one chance before she'd begin to try to break through my shield. I suppressed my instincts and generated a blast of fire at Nao's feet. A shriek of pain from her was music to my ears. Pressing my advantage, I dispelled the ice barrier and I threw out a fireball at Nao, and then another. At one point I felt my torso being peppered with darts, but I didn't give the poison a chance to act. With just one more blast, Nao cried out, "Stop!"

The world folded in on itself. I wasn't going to take the chance that Nao might try to escape, despite our deal, so as soon as the room reappeared before me, I charged forward and pinned her to the floor. "Where's the relic?" I demanded.

"Fuck you, Kruger," Nao said. She actually had the gall to spit at me as she said this. I didn't even have to think about doing something to her in revenge for this - my instincts handled it well enough. Cold seeped out of my arms and into her body, pinning Nao to the floor.

"I won, live with it," I said. With a bit of extra effort, I solidified the spell pinning Nao down. Keeping one eye on her just in case, I began to search through the items in the area. "For your forfeit," I said, hoping that Nao hadn't rigged the rules so she wouldn't have to pay out, "You'll be my slave until I say otherwise. Don't worry, it won't be that long until I have you in jail. At that point, I'll let you go."

The expression on Nao's face was priceless. So the rules were in fact binding. She probably hadn't thought she could lose. Too bad. "Please, don't..." she said.

"Give me one good reason why not," I replied. I only realized after the words had come out of my mouth that what I'd said was technically an order.

"Because my mother will die if I can't pay for her medical care," Nao said.

I froze in place. Nao wasn't the type to admit that thing, but I had ordered her to, hadn't I? I slowly turned to her. "Is that true? Answer me truthfully, Nao."

"Yes, it is," she said. I could tell that she was trying to resist the urge to say this to me, but resistance wasn't going to do her any good.

_Damn it._This changed things. I had no worries about punishing Nao, but her mother was innocent of her daughter's crimes. "Tell me: Why didn't you just get a normal job to pay her bills?"

"Nothing would pay well enough in the free time I had," Nao said, nearly trembling now. Perhaps it was the ice getting to her. "This was the only way I could get enough money without dropping out of school. Mama made me promise that I'd stay in school, whatever it took. I didn't have a choice."

Natsuki narrowed her eyes. "What about the relic that generates this hotspot? You could sell something like that for millions - maybe billions. Why couldn't you just do that?"

Were those tears forming in Nao's eyes? It couldn't be. "It's my mother's, a gift from my father. It means more to her than her own life. She wouldn't let me sell it if I wanted to. Please, please don't take it... Please, Natsuki..."

Those were definitely tears. As it turned out, Nao was human after all. "Perhaps... we can work something out," Natsuki said. If Nao could commit to it, she'd be an asset to the Project. It would do a bit to help alleviate for what she'd done to increase crime in the city, and she could make some money from it. Not as much as through her activities as the Oracle, but if she worked longer hours, she might still be able to make ends meet. "Alright, here's the deal. First, tell me about this relic. I'm curious about how it could generate a hotspot like this. After that, we'll talk."

A glimmer of hope appeared in Nao's eyes. "It's a gem. Mama called it the 'Shadow Spinel,' though it looks more like a sapphire to me. I don't know where it came from, though."

Natsuki nodded. "I'd like to borrow it. I'll let you have it back, but I do want to figure out how it works. It's really something amazing. This isn't a command, though. It's a request."

Nao glared at Natsuki. "Why should I honor it, then?"

"Because I'm not going to turn you in, for one thing. For another thing, I'm going to try to get you a real job that will pay enough. And for a final thing, I'm not going to take advantage of your slavery any more than I have to - which is more than you'd do for me, I'm sure. You owe me at least this much."

Nao grumbled at this. "Fine..." she said in a soft voice.

"One last thing, and then your slavery is over," Natsuki said. She had to try this, just to be sure. "Tell me: Do you know who the Crimson Maiden is?"

Nao raised an eyebrow. She hadn't been expecting this question, apparently. Her mouth opened, but no answer came out for a few seconds. Eventually, she closed her eyes, took a breath, and answered, "No."

Does this rule Nao out? I wish I could say it did. I didn't remember until I'd gone to bed that night that the knowledge of who the Crimson Maiden is was sealed off with a powerful spell. Perhaps it was more powerful than the bond of Nao's duelspace spell. If that was the case, asking her that question could have caused the two to go up against each other. If the sealing spell was stronger, then it couldn't have broken Nao's bonds and allowed her to lie. The way she'd reacted prior to answering was consistent with that, but it also could have just been caused by her thinking about the question before answering.

No matter how much I turned it over in my mind, I couldn't come to a firm conclusion about it. If I had to go with my gut, though, I'd say she was lying. I just can't prove it yet.


	11. Crimson Snare

**Author's Note:** Most of this has already been posted on my LJ; just the last small section is new here.

X-X-X

**Title:** Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 10:** Crimson Snare

X-X-X

**Who is the Crimson Maiden?**  
_A report by Sara Gallagher  
Published November 20, 1406_

Over the last year, numerous students have received a challenge to a duel from a figure known as "The Crimson Maiden." Some of the facts about her are well known: She's sexy as hell. She dresses in red and uses primarily fire magic. She demands the body of her opponent as the forfeit to their duel, and she's never even come close to losing. It also seems to be the consensus around school that it's more than worth it to lose to her - she's apparently that good.

But who is she? No one knows for sure except the Maiden herself, and she's not telling. We know the Maiden has handily defeated many Pearls and Corals in combat, but there's no indication she's ever challenged a Crystal. From this, we can safely rule out any Coral student, and all but a handful of Pearls. It's possible to narrow things down further if one looks at the glamour the Maiden uses to mask her identity. Since she must retain a noticeable feature of her appearance, even under the illusion, there must be some physical attribute in the Maiden's appearance that matches how she truly appeared.

Putting these limitations together, we can come up with a suspects list. From the Crystal class, Shizuru Viola, Haruka Armitage, and Midori al-Aswad all fit the requirements, and from the Pearl class, Mai Tokiha and one other student who declined permission to publish her name fit the requirements. Not all of these suspects are equally likely; for the cases of Shizuru, Haruka, and Mai, fellow students have gone on the record saying they don't think it's at all possible she could be the Crimson Maiden, but there's circumstantial evidence against the other two students as well.

To collect more evidence, I surveyed the student body, looking for students who'd accepted the Maiden's challenge to a duel. Here are some of my key findings:

1) The Maiden tends to keep some distance, even in her victory. She has never once kissed a defeated opponent, and only one student who had fought her reported that the Maiden had touched her with her own hands. Every other student reported that the Maiden used only magical effects and items on them.  
2) The Maiden always makes it clear that she'll entertain requests to back out of one's forfeit. I wasn't able to find anyone who had actually done so, however. A few students did mention that she seemed sincere in her offer, though.  
3) The Maiden's offers to duel are often followed up by a second message if the first is declined. Some students have mentioned this second message as being insightful, and one described it as "manipulative."  
4) The student who described the Maiden's second message as "manipulative" reports that the Maiden later cast lucid dreaming spells on her, which is a serious infraction of school rules, but extremely difficult to prove.  
5) The Maiden's duels always take place late at night, when few students have regular conflicts. This makes it hard to find anyone that can be ruled out, especially when looking back at past encounters.  
6) Only one student claims to have been challenged twice by the Maiden, although she didn't accept the second offer.  
7) The Maiden has used a different Child in almost every encounter. I could find a few cases where she used the same Child multiple times, but no pattern is apparent.  
8) The Maiden has never been seen to use an Element in battle.

Looking at these points, I found myself most curious about the seeming contradiction between point 2 and points 3 and 4. Point 2 implies that the Maiden is honorable, and doesn't truly wish to rape anyone, but this doesn't seem to be consistent with other methods of manipulating students. It's possible that she wouldn't actually honor a request to back out of one's forfeit, but we have no way of knowing this for sure. On the other hand, only one student has reported feeling manipulated like this, so it's possible that there's something unique about her case. Perhaps someone else sent this student notes in the guise of the Maiden?

Readers are invited to send in their opinions on who the Maiden might be, and any evidence or had proof for or against anyone will be greatly appreciated.

X-X-X

"What the-" Mai said, though she caught herself before she earned the ire of the librarian for disturbing the peace. The afternoon study break was supposed to be quieter than lunch break after all, at least in theory. She dropped her voice as she threw an issue of the student paper onto the table and said to Sara, "What the hell is this? Since when am I a suspect?"

Sara's eyes shot over to Irina nervously. Was she in on this as well? At least Mikoto seemed innocent of all this, judging by her look. Unfortunately, Natsuki and Yukino weren't around right now - Yukino had class this period, and Natsuki always had one excuse or another. They would have been able to back Mai up if they were here. They knew Mai as well as anyone, and she was sure they'd vouch for her.

"Well, you said it was alright to use your name in the article..." Sara said. She swallowed nervously as she stared up at Mai.

"That was when I thought you were intending to quote my opinions on the Maiden. You didn't say it was because I was a suspect," Mai said. The temperature around Mai rose a couple of degrees as she fumed, though Mai caught it and forced herself to calm down a bit - she could get in a lot of trouble if she lost control. She was supposed to be a role model here. With a deep breath, she pulled out a chair and sat down. "And you didn't answer my question. Since when am I a suspect here?"

"Well..." Irina said, shuffling in her seat a bit. "We can't really rule you out. I mean, you're strong enough, you have the same fire theme as the Maiden, and your... er, well... you have the right figure to use that for a glamour as the Maiden."

Mai narrowed her eyes, and she dropped her voice to a whisper. "I fought the Maiden, you know. I lost my virginity to her. Well, if you count that... which I do..." Mai shook her head, trying not to let her mind drift back to that experience, and certainly trying not to let herself consider the prospect of accepting the Maiden's offer to duel again. "The point is, I wouldn't lie about something like that. I wouldn't even be talking about it at all if you weren't suspecting me now."

"Well, it's just that... You know you wouldn't lie about it, but we can't know that for sure, can we?" Sara said. "It's not like you're at the top of our list or anything... It's like with Haruka. None of us really suspects she's the Maiden, but without any hard evidence against her, we can't rule her out too soon. We just don't have any firm proof that it can't be you. I'm sorry, Mai, but we just want to be thorough here."

"Yeah, come on," Irina said. "You can even take it as a compliment! If you're a suspect, that means we're willing to believe you're powerful, sexy, and an amazing lover."

"It also means you suspect that I would deliberately mess with Natsuki's dreams," Mai said. Her eyes narrowed and focused on Irina. "I would never do that to a friend. And I can't forgive anyone who would do it to her, either." Sara and Irina looked at each other for a moment. Mai could see regret there, but no acceptance. She just wasn't getting through to them. "Fine. Just tell me what I can do to prove to you that I'm not the Maiden. Circle of Truth, divination, whatever it takes."

"Well..." Sara said. "Let me see..." She picked up her backpack and rifled through it, pulling out a notepad after a bit. She flipped through it for a moment, then said, "As far as I've been able to figure out, the Maiden sends out a challenge every week or so. It's been about that long since Natsuki was challenged, so the Maiden might be sending out another pretty soon. If we can figure out when it happens, and then make sure someone can vouch for your location at that time, then we should be able to rule you out."

Irina's eyes lit up at this. "Perfect! I'll spread the word that I want to know who's fighting the Maiden and when. If anyone can find out, I can. Just leave it to Ultra Detective Irina Woods!"

X-X-X

It felt like Yukino had been staring at the printout of her letter for hours. She'd let herself chicken out from sending it the past two days, but enough was enough. She would do it today, and let the chips fall as they might. At least, that was the plan. She'd promised herself she'd sent the letter by 7 pm at the latest, and according to the clock, she was down to her last five minutes.

_Why am I making this so hard? I mean... what's the worst that could happen? Well, Haruka could reject me and be so disgusted that she won't even be my friend anymore... Or she's mad at me for not telling her sooner and implicitly lying to her... But if that's the case, I'm just making it worse by not sending this as soon as possible. So I have to do this._

Without giving herself a chance to rethink her conclusion, Yukino signed her name to the note and cast a quick spell to deliver it to Haruka as soon as she was in her dorm room. On some level, Yukino was expecting to be filled with dread as the letter vanished from her sight, but this didn't turn out to be the case. Instead, she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It was done. She'd done all she could do. All that was left now was to wait for a reply.

Haruka probably wouldn't take long to reply. She believed in being as prompt as possible with one's communications. Even if she didn't know what she felt about this situation, she'd at least send a quick reply saying that she needed time to think about it. The only reason it might take longer than that was if Haruka wasn't in her room right now. If that were the case, it might not be until much later that Yukino got a reply.

Given that possibility, there wasn't much point in sitting around and waiting for a reply to appear. Yukino let out a sigh and turned to face her computer. She might as well get some homework done while she waited. However, she'd only managed to get a couple minutes worth of work done before a piece of paper popped into existence in front of her monitor. Grabbing it just a bit too eagerly, Yukino began to read.

_Good evening, Yukino. I trust this message finds you well. Tonight, I have a special proposal for you. Should you wish, come to dueling room 3 at 8 pm to meet me. I challenge you to a duel with the highest stakes: victor's choice for the duration of two hours, beginning from the conclusion of the duel, the only limitation being that only the two of us may be involved in any activities._

I realize that you are wondering who I am, and so I will make a special offer for you, and only you. If you come to face me, and I turn out to be victorious, I will nevertheless grant you the privilege of knowing my true identity, but only under the condition that you perform a memory charm upon yourself to erase this knowledge upon the conclusion of our meeting. I hope to see you there.

Sincerely,  
The Crimson Maiden

"It can't be..." Yukino muttered to herself. The timing had to be a coincidence. Haruka couldn't be the Crimson Maiden, not the Haruka that Yukino knew. She would just have to wait for Haruka's real reply, which would prove it. Putting the letter out of her mind, Yukino went back to her homework.

X-X-X

_It's her, as far as I can tell. Confirmation code YClt3HA_.

_-Yukino_

Even though she'd written the note herself, Yukino still had trouble believing it. Her mind was still sorting itself out from the aftereffects of the memory charm she'd used on herself. She remembered that she'd gotten worried about the lack of a reply from Haruka, and the worry had led to suspicion. But there was no way she'd accept a challenge from the Crimson Maiden without knowing for a fact that it was Haruka, so she needed some proof. She still had the password to Haruka's computer from when she'd helped her friend set it up, and as long as it was turned on, she'd be able to connect to it through the school network and snoop around.

Of course, she couldn't simply invade her friend's privacy for something like this. When the idea had first come to her, Yukino had dismissed it out of hand. But a suspicion kept gnawing at her: What if Haruka did have another side to herself that she couldn't face? What if this was her way of acting it out? It wouldn't affect how Yukino felt about her - she already knew that Haruka wasn't perfect. Granted, it would take Yukino some work to be okay with all of this, but she'd do that for Haruka.

So, if this was the case, Yukino had to do something to be there for her friend, particularly if this was going to be her only chance. It wasn't the most airtight work of logic in the world, but it was what Yukino had used to justify her actions. She'd used a memory charm on herself - inspired by the Crimson Maiden's letter - so she wouldn't remember anything of what she found on Haruka's computer, and then went searching for evidence. According to her note, she'd found some. It wasn't conclusive, apparently, but it had been enough to convince her before, so she should just trust herself.

And once she had a chance to talk to Haruka - outside of any guises or memory charms - she'd confess to this breach of privacy. She just hoped it would be enough.

Yukino glanced at the time. It was 7:44 now. She'd have to get going if she wanted to get to the Maiden's duel on time. If it really was Haruka, then she wouldn't appreciate Yukino showing up late. And if it wasn't Haruka... then Yukino was risking giving up her virginity to someone other than her love.

Deflated, Yukino sunk back into her chair. She couldn't take that risk. She'd have to be sure the Maiden would let her back out if it turned out to be anyone other than Haruka. According to Sara's article, she was probably sincere about that offer.

Probably. If she trusted her note, the Maiden was _probably_ Haruka. If she trusted Sara's findings, the Maiden would _probably_let her back out if she asked. If not, then there was one word for it: rape. Yukino would be putting a lot of trust in "probably." She'd need a trump card, just in case.

Going with the first idea that came to mind, Yukino pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled out a note.

_Mai,_

This is Yukino. If you don't get another message from me by 8:30 tonight, get a faculty member to dispel the duelspace in dueling room 3 immediately, as it will mean the Crimson Maiden isn't letting me back out of my forfeit, and you know what that means. I'm willing to take any penalty for backing out if it comes to this. I'll explain later; I'm running short on time now.

-Yukino

Yukino stared at the note. That should do it. She simply had to tell the Maiden about this, and she was in the clear. ...Unless Mai was the Maiden. It didn't seem likely, but it wasn't a risk Yukino could take. She scribbled out Mai's name and wrote in Irina's. There. Everything was set. She sent the message off to Irina with a spell for immediate, emergency delivery, and took a deep breath. It was time to go.

X-X-X

_Irina,_

_If you have a chance, look up "Sisterhood of the Crimson Flame." I can't tell you why, and I won't even remember sending this if you ask me about it later, but it might be just what we need._

_-Yukino_

Despite the recommendation from Yukino, a search online had turned up nothing. Irina was beginning to wonder if this was just a joke. Perhaps it wasn't even Yukino who'd sent the note. Come to think of it, Irina had never inspected Yukino's handwriting, so there wasn't any way to know right now. She could ask Yukino if this was her handwriting, though. She'd already sent a note back to Yukino asking what this meant, but she'd received no reply so far.

Perhaps there would be something buried somewhere in the school library. Perhaps not, and that would be a lot of time wasted if this was a dead end. If only Yukino could be straight with her... but no, she had to be cryptic, and she had to play this "I might not remember" game. It was almost as if she was trying to be as useless as possible.

Just as this thought crossed Irina's mind, another letter popped into existence in front of her. She grabbed it and began to read. It was the same handwriting as before, and also signed by Yukino. As she finished reading it, three thoughts crossed Irina's mind: _1) What the hell? Yukino's fighting the Crimson Maiden? Why didn't she talk to us about this beforehand? 2) That is a clever idea, though... 3) Wait! I can use this to rule people out!_

Irina began to work on a series of notes. They might only be able to locate one or two of their suspects in the time they had, but it was better than nothing.


	12. Process of Elimination

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 11:** Process of Elimination

X-X-X

Yukino paused just outside the entrance to the dueling room. The rooms were off in their own hallway, and it wouldn't be too hard for the Crimson Maiden to slip out unnoticed and return to her dorm room without raising any questions. It would be easy to monitor for when no one was near the door before leaving, but that was assuming that no one was watching it, waiting to see who might come out. Sara hadn't mentioned it in her article, but she certainly would have said something if any student had reported ever seeing the Crimson Maiden outside of a dueling room. She would have to drop her glamour before leaving, then.

Yukino was tight on time, but this could be the only chance they had. She pulled out a scrap of paper from her pocket and scribbled a quick note.

_Irina,_

Stake out dueling room 3; see who leaves it.

_-Yukino_

Yukino send it off for immediate, emergency delivery, then turned her focus back to the door. Taking a deep breath, and feeling like she could very well be walking to her own execution, she opened the door. Before Yukino lay a stretched and distorted image in place of the room. A duelspace spell was already in effect, but still open to allow one more person to enter. Yukino took a step forward, into the distortion, and the rules for the duel read themselves out within her mind. One more step would signify that she accepted the Maiden's challenge, and the only retreat would be forfeiting the duel. Steeling herself, Yukino stepped forward.

The world blurred, twisted, and finally came back into focus in front of Yukino. The duelspace took the form of a simple room with stone walls, floor and ceiling, lit by four braziers in the corners. There were no doors out of the room, but one could always end the duel by speaking the words "I forfeit." This would put into place a spell that prevented the inhabitants from feeling any pain, dispel any active magic cast by the forfeiting student, and begin to enforce the stakes of the duel. Given who Yukino was facing off with here, it would almost certainly come to that point sooner or later, but she had no intention of going down without a fight.

"I'm pleased to see that you showed up," the Crimson Maiden said. Only when she spoke did Yukino finally focus her eyes on the woman. She'd heard that the Maiden was beautiful, but she hadn't mentally prepared herself for the sight. Her heart leaped into her throat at just how much of the Maiden's flesh was exposed. _That can't possibly be Haruka... can it?_Yukino shook her head. It was an illusion. She knew illusions. The entire point was to hide the user, and make it seem impossible that it could be them. The Maiden didn't look at all like Haruka. In fact, she looked quite a bit like Midori - the hairstyle was only a bit different, and the Maiden's eyes and bust were the only aspects that truly differentiated her from Midori. But that just made it less likely in Yukino's mind that it could be her. It was just too obvious.

"I can't exactly say I'm pleased to be here," Yukino said, locking her gaze with the Maiden's. Whether this was Haruka or not, the Maiden's past actions, in particular the way she'd treated Natsuki, weren't something Yukino could simply forget. "Just because I'm good with illusions doesn't mean I can respect what you're doing. Whoever you are, you'll have your work cut out in trying to justify yourself to me. Even if you best me in combat, don't expect me to submit to someone I can't respect."

The Maiden raised an eyebrow as she responded to this. "If you lose to me, do you truly believe you'll have a choice about whether or not to submit?"

_I've been wondering that myself,_Yukino thought, though she didn't give any outward indication of her doubts. No one had yet tested whether the Maiden would actually let them back out, and Yukino still hoped it wouldn't come to that. But she'd at least prepared for that eventuality. "I do. If it turns out that I've overestimated your morality, and you do try to force the issue, I have a rescue arranged. I'll get in trouble for trying to back out of a forfeit, but not nearly as much trouble as you'll get into." Yukino could feel courage welling up inside her as she spoke. She swore that she could see a flicker or doubt cross the Maiden's features, but it didn't last long. It was enough, though.

"We'll see about that. Once I win, I have little doubt that you'll be perfectly willing to submit yourself to me," the Maiden said. A smile spread across her face, and the flame from one of the braziers reflected off of her eye. She thrust her hand out, pointing at Yukino. "En garde, Yukino Chrysant."

The choice of the proper Child could make or break a battle. Some students specialized in their bonded Child and always chose this, while others strived to be more flexible. Yukino's bonded child, Diana, the seer-Vine, was far better at defense than offense, and so was a poor choice for one-on-one duels. She might be able to hold out for a long while, but she'd never be able to strike a significant blow against the Maiden or her Child. Eventually, the Maiden would wear her down.

Simply put, Yukino was outclassed here. Her bonded Child was useless, and she only had familiarity with a couple other Childs. But if she summoned either of them, the Maiden could easily choose something that would counter it. If Yukino delayed summoning her Child, the Maiden could likely defeat her without ever summoning hers. However Yukino decided to play the game, she would lose. The choice was therefore quite simple: Toss the game out the window and make her own rules.

Step one: Stack the deck. Yukino thrust her arm forward in the same manner as the Maiden had, and she called out, "Gennai!" In response to her call, the floor around the Maiden darkened. The Maiden leaped out of the shadows before they could latch onto her feet.

"Interesting choice," the Maiden said as the shadowed patch began to bubble. A figure began to rise up from it, but the Maiden was already summoning her own Child. "Come, Kagutsuchi."

The room began to shake as the Maiden uttered the name of the dragon. Yukino could sense the boundaries of the duelspace expanding, as it enlarged itself to accommodate a battle between Childs. The walls of the room faded away as the duelspace transformed into a vast plain. Yukino winced as her eyes adjusted to the sudden onslaught of sunlight, but the sound of a dragon's roar helped her focus on what she needed to do.

Yukino dismissed her illusion with a wave of her hand. It had taken a fair bit out of her to make a convincing illusion of a Gennai being summoned, but it had served its purpose now. With a smirk, Yukino began to summon her actual Child for this fight. "Yatagarasu."

Yukino had spent many hours reading up on strategy, partly to better understand Haruka's mindset, but partly to compensate for her lack of raw power in duels. Kagutsuchi was an offensive Child. Yukino couldn't summon anything that could take a hit from it, but she could summon something that had a shot at evading it. Yatagarasu was faster and more agile than the dragon. Kagutsuchi wouldn't be able to hit it easily, but Yatagarasu would be able to slowly chip away at the dragon. It wasn't a sure thing, but one of the key facts that Yukino had learned was that an increase in randomness always favors the underdog. In almost any one-on-one duel, that was Yukino. Luck was her ally. This way, she at least had a chance, however small, of defeating the Maiden.

Yatagarasu appeared from the direction of the sun. Silently commanding it to come toward her, Yukino ran off in it's direction and leaped into the air, using a bit of magic to enhance her jump. The Maiden shot off a few fireballs at Yukino as she leaped, but her luck held out so far, and none of them hit her. Yatagarasu swooped in to let Yukino land on its back at the apex of her leap. Yukino grabbed on to the crow's feathers and silently commanded him to fly back up, directly toward the sun.

"Follow me if you can!" Yukino called out in a challenge to the Maiden. If the Maiden had the slightest bit of pride, she wouldn't allow her Child to fight it out with Yukino and Yatagarasu alone in the sky. She would want to be there herself, where she could better direct her Child and add her own offensive power to the assault on Yukino. Yukino needed to be there as well, as her only real chance to win this battle was if Yatagarasu could strike the Maiden directly and take her out. Kagutsuchi was far too powerful for Yatagarasu to take down before it landed a lucky strike. Yukino's only choice was to roll the dice and go for a decapitating strike.

Thankfully, the Maiden didn't disappoint Yukino's expectations. Kagutsuchi, who had been chasing after Yatagarasu up until this point, veered off so it could pick up the Maiden. Yukino used the extra time this bought her to fly farther away, always flying directly toward the sun. By the time Kagutsuchi resumed its chase of her, she hoped that even the dragon wouldn't be able to see her against the sun's glare.

One of the most fundamental limitations of illusion magic is that the truth can never be completely obscured. It could be surrounded with lies, it could be distorted, it could even be twisted to give the casual observer the exact wrong impression, but it must always remain in some form. It seemed to be a fundamental limitation of magic; perhaps some sort of conservation law. This fact led many people to write off illusion magic as useless, but that just betrayed their lack of imagination.

For instance, right now, Yukino and Yatagarasu would appear as little more than a spec against the sun to the Crimson Maiden and Kagutsuchi. By casting an illusion between herself and the Maiden to distort the path of light, Yukino was able to make it appear as if she were maintaining her distance from the dragon even as she ordered Yatagarasu to turn around and dive toward Kagutsuchi. She had to strengthen the illusion as they dove to keep the Maiden from getting suspicious, and even that was gambling that the Maiden wouldn't be looking too closely at her.

Yukino mentally guided Yatagarasu to aim directly at the Maiden herself. She tightened her grip on the crow's feathers as she and the Maiden neared the location of Yukino's illusion, readying herself for impact. She could see that Kagutsuchi's mouth was open, and flame was building up within it, but it didn't have a chance to attack. Yukino's illusion shattered as she and Yatagarasu burst through it. The Maiden had only a moment to react to Yukino's presence before Yatagarasu slammed into her. Yukino almost couldn't believe her eyes as the Maiden was knocked off of her mount. She'd actually struck a blow against the Crimson Maiden - and without even getting hit herself.

She couldn't get cocky, though. That was dumb luck, and she knew it. Yukino cast a couple more illusions - one offensive, one defensive. The first was on the Maiden herself - she made it appear that the Maiden was a bit higher than she in fact was, in hopes that when Kagutsuchi would try to catch her, he'd miss and end up hitting her instead. The illusion didn't last long, though. The Maiden was prepared for illusions now, it seemed, and she was able to dismiss this one within moments of it being cast. She wasn't able to easily dismiss the defensive illusion Yukino had cast though: A series of reflections of herself and Yatagarasu that helped to hide her true position.

The reflections soon paid off, as Kagutsuchi breathed fire on a random reflection while on its way to pick up the Maiden. Yukino dismissed that particular reflection and summoned another. She ordered Yatagarasu to turn around and head back toward the Maiden for another attack. Yukino readied an orb of ice energy as she, along with all of her reflections, approached the Maiden once more. She pulled away at the last moment and lobbed her ice orb at the Maiden, guessing that the Maiden wouldn't let herself get hit by Yatagarasu this easily.

Yukino guided the ice orb toward the Maiden, but the added concentration she was using meant that she didn't have enough time to respond to the Maiden's counterattack. Rather than go after any of the individual targets before her, the Maiden had opted to attack them all at once. A massive orb of flame grew from the Maiden's position, scorching Yatagarasu and Yukino and nearly knocking her off of her mount. Yukino's ice orb was dissipated by the Maiden's sphere of flame, so Yukino shot off a quick beam of ice at the Maiden, while the Maiden returned fire with lashes of fire at random images of Yatagarasu.

The Maiden was able to evade the beam of ice, but when Yukino ordered Yatagarasu to attack with a flurry of feathers, she was pleased to see that one of them successfully struck the Maiden's shoulder. Her joy was short-lived, though, as a lash of flame from the Maiden struck Yatagarasu. Now that she'd found the correct target, the Maiden began to focus on it. Kagutsuchi wasn't able to aim its breath at the agile bird, but the Maiden seemed to be having no trouble striking it. Yukino generated a quick flash of light in an attempt to hide herself as she formed more illusions, but it was no use. Yatagarasu was moving too sluggishly now for her new illusions to be convincing possibilities for where he might be, and the Maiden easily saw through her trick.

After a final blast of fire, Yatagarasu let out a cry and began to fade beneath Yukino. In desperation, Yukino manfested a disk of ice in her hands. She through it off toward the Maiden, hoping that by some miracle it would strike her neck for a decapitating strike. It wasn't to be, though. In fact, her disk didn't even come close to hitting the Maiden - it ended up shattering against one of Kagutsuchi's wings.

Yukino considered casting a levitation spell on herself as she began to fall back to earth, but it didn't matter at this point. Without her Child to help her evade, Kagutsuchi was easily able to envelop Yukino with its breath attack. As the fire touched her, Yukino immediately felt herself tumbling against the ground, though she didn't feel any pain from either it or the fire itself. The duelspace had entered its post-combat mode. Yukino had lost.

"I must say," the Maiden said as she approached Yukino. "That was an impressive performance. You're only the second opponent of mine who has ever managed to land an attack on me in a duel. Perhaps I should allow you something of a reward for that."

Yukino pushed herself up to her feet. She'd been expecting to lose, but that didn't mean she was any less nervous now. She wouldn't be able to resist if the Maiden didn't give her a chance to back out of her forfeit, and it would be at least fifteen minutes before Irina would try to save her. She had to hope that Sara was right, and the Maiden was in fact honorable, somewhere beneath her guise.

"I don't suppose you'd consider allowing me to know your identity without a memory charm, would you?" Yukino asked.

"I'm afraid that's not negotiable," the Maiden said. Yukino wasn't able to say whether or not there was actually any regret in her voice as she said this. She was having a hard time judging much of anything about the Maiden right now. The Maiden approached Yukino as she continued to speak. Even though she was just walking, there was something about it that was getting to Yukino. "Although if you wish, I can proceed without revealing my identity at all. That will allow you to remember the events tonight much more clearly. I can guarantee that if you choose this option, I won't give you cause to regret it."

Yukino shook her head, trying to focus. "No. I only came because of your promise to reveal your identity. I'll do what I have to."

X-X-X

_Irina,_

I'm safe, although I won't be exiting the dueling room anytime soon.

-Yukino

X-X-X

Yukino couldn't remember much of anything after that point. She was sure that the Maiden revealed her identity, and she was sure that they talked for some time. After that point, her mind was almost completely blank. She found herself standing in the empty dueling room alone. According to the clock, it was nearly 10:30. She'd stayed there the whole two hours. Did that mean she'd accepted the Maiden's advances? Her body did feel vaguely warm... She'd been planning to back out if it was anyone other than Haruka... but if it was Haruka, and she had accepted, then that meant that she wouldn't even be able to remember her first time. But if that was occurring to her now, wouldn't it have occurred to her earlier? Or had she let herself get so caught up in the moment that it didn't cross her mind?

Yukino let out a sigh. There was nothing she could do about it now. It was a mistake, but she would accomplish nothing other than driving herself crazy if she obsessed over it. Besides, if it was Haruka, then there was no reason she couldn't simply go to her friend's room and do this all again - this time without any memory charms to prevent her from remembering. A warmth filled Yukino's cheeks at the thought of what she was planning to do, and what this all meant, but she tried to suppress it as she exited the room.

Fortunately, Yukino didn't run into anyone on her way to Haruka's room who might have questioned her blush. She probably wouldn't have even noticed the presence of anyone else, given her current state of mind. It didn't even occur to her to check in with Irina and see if she'd spotted Haruka leaving the dueling room. All Yukino could think about was what she would say to Haruka. It would probably be best to simply start by saying that she knew Haruka was the Maiden and that she was willing to forgive her for it. She'd then have to ask why Haruka felt the need to hide this.

"Yukino!" The sound of Haruka's voice managed to grab Yukino's attention. As Yukino turned the corner into the hallway toward Haruka's dorm room, she'd come into sight of her upperclassman. "Did you come to see me?"

Yukino smiled at this. "I did, Haruka. Can we talk in your room?"

"Of course," Haruka said. She opened up the door to her room and walked in. A note popped into existence in front of Haruka, but Yukino didn't pay it any mind. Haruka was involved with a lot of things, so even at this time of night, there was nothing unusual about her getting a note from someone. Haruka, however, seemed to find something quite odd about it. "Yukino...?" she said as she looked at the note.

"Hmm?" Yukino said. She took a seat on one of Haruka's spare chairs. "What is it?"

"A note from you..." Haruka said, taking the question a bit more literally than Yukino had intended. Yukino normally would rolled her eyes at this behavior from Haruka, but her mind was in quite a different place right now.

Yukino stood up and went to see the note. "Wait, I didn't send you anything else..." she said. It had to be someone impersonating her. But Haruka would recognize Yukino's handwriting, so that didn't seem likely. Perhaps she'd written it while the memory charm was in effect, but she didn't remember it. But why would she have done that? Yukino looked over the note, and her body froze as she realized what it was. It was the note she'd send earlier this evening, confessing her feelings to Haruka. Haruka must not have been in her room when Yukino had sent it, and she hadn't been until now.

And if Haruka hadn't received that note until now, the timing of the challenge from the Crimson Maiden had to just be a coincidence. _Okay, so it was a coincidence... but I still found some evidence that led me to believe it was Haruka, and I wouldn't have spend the full two hours there if it wasn't her._"Um, Haruka... it was you, wasn't it?" Yukino said.

Haruka looked at Yukino and blinked in confusion. "What was me?"

"The Crimson Maiden," Yukino said. "That was you tonight, wasn't it?"

Haruka blinked again. Yukino's comment wasn't registering with her. She furrowed her eyebrows. "Tonight? I was having a meeting with the disciplinary committee... But this note, Yukino, I didn't know you..."

"No..." Yukino said. This couldn't be. It had to be Haruka. There was no way she'd have consented to anyone else. "Stop it. Don't joke about this, please. Please, just tell me it was you tonight."

Haruka might have been dense at times, but she had no problem noticing the panic that was beginning to overtake Yukino. She put the letter down and placed her hands on Yukino's shoulders, looking into the younger girl's eyes. "What happened, Yukino? You can tell me anything; you know that. What's wrong?"

X-X-X

Natsuki was nearly knocked off of her feet by the sound of Haruka's yell. Her survival instinct kicked in, and she said, "Perhaps we should find something else to do for a few minutes..."

Shizuru nodded at this. "That sounds like a good idea. I wouldn't want to get in Haruka's way while she's in one of her moods."

"Oh, I know. Do I ever know..." Natsuki said. Haruka had caught her slipping out of campus once, and the results hadn't been pretty. A teacher had been able to talk Haruka down to just a detention, but if Haruka had had her way, Natsuki would have found herself suspended for a good week. Another time, she'd had the misfortune of simply being in Haruka's warpath, and Haruka had tried to Natsuki detention for impeding a criminal investigation. Thankfully though, that particular one didn't go through.

Unfortunately, Natsuki and Shizuru were only able to take a couple of steps toward a bench before Haruka barged between the two of them. She shoved her finger into Shizuru's chest and said, "You! I don't care if I don't have any proof. You've gone too far this time. No one, not even the untouchable Shizuru Viola, hurts Yukino. I don't care what it takes I will see you in prison in for this!"

Shizuru was too stunned by this accusation to respond. Without even thinking, Natsuki grabbed Haruka's arm and spun the other girl away from her girlfriend. "What the hell is this about? Shizuru would never hurt Yukino, or anyone else for that matter," Natsuki said. At this point, she couldn't care less that she was manhandling an upperclassman. She wasn't going to allow Shizuru to be accused like that.

Haruka glared at Natsuki. "Don't interfere with this, Kruger. This is between me, Shizuru, and Yukino. Back away now, or I'll get you for aiding and abetting."

Natsuki lowered her brow. She worked in law enforcement, even if she couldn't tell Haruka that, so she knew that she Haruka's threat was a mere bluff. But if Haruka was going to play that game, Natsuki could at least play along to try and get some straight answers out of Haruka. She let go of Haruka's arm and said, "So tell me: What crime is Shizuru accused of? You can't touch a hair on her head before you at least say what you think she did."

Haruka grunted. "Fine." She turned back to Shizuru and pointed her finger at the girl's chest again. "This lech has been masquerading as the Crimson Maiden and molesting girls on campus. I wasn't able to get anyone to admit they hadn't consented until tonight. According to Yukino, the Maiden forced her to do something tonight and then had her wipe her own memory of it. But a memory charm won't get you out of a rape charge. I will fill evidence, whatever it takes."

Shizuru slowly backed away from Haruka. "Tonight...?" she said weakly.

"Shizuru and I were on a date," Natsuki said. Her mind was torn in three directions right now. She was still angry at Haruka for the accusation against Shizuru, but now she was worried about what had happened to Yukino, and there was also a part of her which was ready to jump for joy at the fact that she finally had conclusive evidence against Shizuru being the Maiden. She could figure that out later, though. Natsuki shook her head clear of those thoughts, and she said, "We've been in Windbloom since around 6. She hasn't been out of my sight the whole time. There's no way she could have done anything to Yukino. It had to have been someone else."

Haruka froze in place. She blinked slowly. After a long minute, she turned to Natsuki and said, "If you're lying about this, I will find out. If not..." Haruka gritted her teeth and turned back to Shizuru. "I apologize. Now tell me, who is the Crimson Maiden!"


	13. Sakura Sunset

**Author's Note:** Thanks for all the great reviews on the last chapter! It's gotten me to thinking... I'm not exactly the best audience for all this speculation, as I know the answer and can't share it. But here's what I can do for you. I've created a forum thread (in the new forum "Mai Fanfic Discussion") for readers to discuss it with each other. As a bit of encouragement, if the conversation goes well, I may give you all a few bonus hints.

To get to the forums, you can either take the link from my profile, or you can go to the page for all Mai HiME fanfics, then use the Forums link in the top right. You need to register with an account to discuss there. If users without an account want to discuss it as well, let me know, and I can set up a thread in my LJ for it.

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 12: **Sakura Sunset

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

After the events of the day before, Irina had called for a team meeting to catch up on everything they knew now. It had initially been scheduled for the morning, but Natsuki had managed to get them to postpone it until the afternoon so she'd have a bit of a chance to catch up on sleep. She'd been barely managing to get enough sleep when it was just work and school taking up her time. Now that she was dating as well, she found herself regularly running short on weekdays. If she wasn't able to catch up over the weekend, she'd be ready to kill someone by Monday. With what had happened to Yukino, perhaps that wasn't the worst mood to be in, but Natsuki did want to at least be well-rested when she confronted the Crimson Maiden.

The mood was understandably glum when Natsuki joined the rest of the girls - sans Yukino, who wasn't in much of a mood to talk about the matter yet. Both Shizuru and Haruka had been elsewhere when Yukino was fighting the Maiden, and both had witnesses to confirm it, so they could both be ruled out as suspects. This normally would have been good news, but no one was happy about the price Yukino had paid for this knowledge. For the sake of her own sanity, Yukino had decided to believe that she didn't do anything with the Maiden, and the Maiden had kept her in the dueling room for some other reason, but she didn't have any proof of that. She didn't even seem entirely convinced of it herself, given the fact that she'd refused to talk with anyone other than Haruka and Mai today.

"Well, I suppose everyone's already heard about Yukino..." Irina said once Natsuki had sat down. Everyone had been concerned about her once word had gotten around, so Yukino had cleared things up with a mass message. "But let's go over everything else from last night, to make sure we're all up to speed." Irina pulled out her notepad and read from it, "Okay, first, ruling out suspects. First of all, we have Haruka. She was at a meeting with the disciplinary committee, and I've been able to get confirmation on that."

"Shizuru was on a date with me," Natsuki said. She didn't particularly want to discuss her relationship with other people, but it was necessary to tell them at least this much. "She definitely couldn't have been the one Yukino fought."

Mai spoke up next. "I was working during the duel. Any of my coworkers can vouch for me, so I hope you can start trusting me."

Natsuki blinked in surprise at this. "Wait... you were a suspect?"

Mai let out a sigh. "I guess you weren't here for that. Sara listed me as one of the suspects in her article, because she couldn't rule me out. Till now, that is."

"Ah," Natsuki said. She'd been distracted the day before, worrying about what she'd do on her date with Shizuru, so she hadn't had a chance to read Sara's article. It hadn't even occurred to her before this point that Mai might be the Maiden. It just didn't seem at all like her friend to be that secretive. But perhaps she should have considered Mai. Mai was great with fire attacks, just like the Maiden, and she was the strongest in their class. Her personality didn't make her very likely, but she did have more going for her as a suspect than Haruka did, so perhaps she should have merited some consideration. Well, until now, that is. If she had an alibi, she was in the clear. But Natsuki really did need to get her head in the game here. She'd gotten distracted by her relationship with Shizuru, and worrying if Shizuru was the Maiden, and she'd missed out on this possibility. She couldn't let that happen again.

"...find Midori, unfortunately," Akane was saying as Natsuki focused back on the conversation. "I tried her room, and I tried sending her a note, asking if she'd be free to discuss our project, but she didn't get back to me until earlier today. So, it doesn't look like we can rule her out."

"And Nao wasn't in her room," Mikoto said. "I checked."

Irina furrowed her brow at this. "How? Aren't the rooms protected from any attempts at looking in?"

"The windows aren't," Mikoto said, as if it should have been obvious. "I watched. She wasn't there."

"She could have been working, though," Natsuki said. "She's got a job in the city, and she sets her own hours. It might not be anything suspicious."

"And Midori could have simply been out in the city doing something last night," Akane said. "It was a Friday night, after all, so I wouldn't be surprised if she'd gone out drinking or something."

"Okay, well that's still pretty good luck," Irina said. "It was short notice, but we were still able to rule out two suspects - including one of our prime suspects. Oh, and Mai as well." Irina shot Mai a quick, apologetic smile. "That leaves us with just Nao and Midori. So next point: What have we learned about the Maiden from last night?"

The table was silent for a bit, but at last, Mai spoke up. "Well, I guess I can go over what Yukino told me. She suspected the challenge she received was from Haruka, so she did a bit of snooping to see if she could confirm it. She cast a memory charm on herself so she wouldn't remember any of what she found, so she could help preserve Haruka's privacy, but she found something on Haruka's computer that led her to believe that Haruka was the Maiden. No clue what it is she found, though."

"Wait," Irina said. She pulled out one of her folders and took out a piece of paper from it. "I got this note from Yukino last night - I was planning to bring it up next, but this might fit in her. She asked me to look up something called the 'Sisterhood of the Crimson Flame.' It might be something she found on Haruka's computer. I thought it might be a website, or something, so I did some searching, but I wasn't able to come up with anything. Haruka might have mentioned it in a homework assignment or something, though, which could mean she found out about it while doing some research assignment."

"The problem is," Sara said, "Haruka isn't the Maiden. It could just be a coincidence that she used the word 'Crimson' at some point. I'll look into it, and see if anyone else has heard of this, but it could just be a false lead."

Irina nodded. "Alright, final point: The stakeout. Or, in other words, how we can avoid being tricked next time. Sara and I were waiting for the Maiden to leave the dueling room, but she must have figured out somehow that we were waiting for her. What happened is, she opened the door near where I was, and then - I figured this out later, at the time I thought it was real - she cast an illusion of herself, still in the guise of the Maiden, running off down the hallway. I ran off after her, hoping to trail her until she dropped the glamour, but the illusion vanished on me after I'd turned a couple corners. I heard some footsteps when I ran back to the room, but I didn't catch sight of either Nao or Midori in the halls nearby. For all I know, the Maiden used another glamour to cover herself after that point. Oh, and I think Yukino left the dueling room as well sometime while I was searching the hallways for any of our suspects - when I finally did get back to the room, it was empty."

"You could have sent me a note about this, you know," Sara said, glaring at Irina. "I was watching the other door for a full half hour longer before I finally checked the dueling room and noticed it was empty."

"Oh..." Irina chuckled, and she scratched the back of her head. "Um, sorry about that. But anyway! Plan of action!" she said, quickly changing the subject. "We need to focus our efforts on Nao and Midori now. Find out everything we can about them - there's no telling where a clue might come from. Midori's leaving for a Fuuka in about a week, so we should keep watch and see if the Maiden does anything while she's away. If she does, then we'll know it's Nao, and we can proceed to catch her."

X-X-X

_Dear Natsuki,_

Would you be interested in getting together tonight, by any chance? I know that we spent a lot of time together yesterday, but we never got to conclude the date properly. I noticed the sakura trees are in bloom again today, and I thought that it might be nice to spent a bit of time with you among them.

Your girlfriend, (I'm sorry, I just adore saying that)  
Shizuru Viola

Natsuki let out a sigh. She'd promised herself that she'd try to focus more on figuring out who the Crimson Maiden was, but she couldn't simply turn Shizuru down. Well, she could, but she didn't want to. Their date last night had ended on a sour note, and Shizuru was right that they should do something sweet to make up for it. Perhaps it was time to talk with Shizuru about the case. She hadn't had anything to say to Haruka about who the Crimson Maiden might be, but perhaps she'd have something to say about how Natsuki could figure out who it was.

_Who am I kidding? I'm just making excuses here so I can see her... Fine, but just tonight. After that, I'll focus on the case. It's not likely anyone else will be able to learn much about Nao._ As Natsuki's thoughts shifted to Nao, she recalled the promise that Nao had made to her. That relic of Nao's was certainly interesting, even though it didn't seem to have anything to do with the Crimson Maiden case. Irina had said, though, that they had to pursue anything about Nao and Midori. It was just possible that that relic could lead Natsuki to something interesting.

Taking out a piece of paper, Natsuki wrote out a note to Nao:

_Nao,_

I'd like to check out that relic of yours. I'm curious what makes it work. Free to let me borrow it?

-Natsuki Kruger

Natsuki sent off the note to Nao, and she began working on a reply for Shizuru. A reply came back from Nao before she could figure out exactly what she wanted to say to Shizuru, though.

_Fuck off, Kruger. I need it to work._

-Nao

This was going to be a bit harder than Natsuki had thought.

X-X-X

Natsuki couldn't help feeling a bit nervous as she walked to the gardens to meet Shizuru. It wasn't anything about seeing Shizuru that had her nervous; rather, it was the fact that she'd tried to dress up for this. Well, it was dressing up by Natsuki's standards. She'd gone to the trouble of researching a spell that would permanently preserve the sakura blossom that Shizuru had given her when they'd first met, and so she'd been able to keep it in perfect condition until now. It felt appropriate to wear it again, and Natsuki was going to count it as dressing up. It wasn't as if she actually had any clothes that looked at all fancy - appearances had never been at the top of her priority list.

As Shizuru came into view, Natsuki realized that perhaps she was being a bit optimistic by considering what she'd done "dressing up." Shizuru was providing a much better example of what to do. While Natsuki had simply worn her school uniform, Shizuru had swapped it out for a light blue blouse and a purple skirt, with a red sash around her waist. The blouse was decorated with a subtle floral pattern, and as Natsuki got close, she noticed a pattern of gold stitching on the skirt as well. Natsuki gulped, her nervousness resurging, but she couldn't stand Shizuru up just because she didn't have anything nice to wear.

"Um, hi, Shizuru," Natsuki said. She initially tried to meet her girlfriend's eyes, but she quickly ended up looking away. "You're, um... looking quite nice this evening."

Out of the corner of her eye, Natsuki could see Shizuru smiling at her. Shizuru stepped toward her and said, "Thank you. Natsuki's looking quite lovely as well."

"You're just saying that..." Natsuki said, refusing to meet Shizuru's gaze. "I... I really don't have anything better to wear than this."

"Don't be silly," Shizuru said. She stopped a couple of feet away from Natsuki's, and she took Natsuki's hand in her own and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Natsuki looks lovely because she's a lovely person. I couldn't care less what she's wearing, though I am quite touched that she's still wearing that sakura blossom I gave her after all this time. That just tells me how sweet Natsuki truly is."

Natsuki mumbled something in reply, but she wasn't even sure herself what she was saying. Realizing the pointlessness of this, Natsuki forced herself to look over at Shizuru. As her gaze landed on Shizuru's face, Natsuki could feel herself weakening a bit. _She really does like me..._ Natsuki thought. There was no denying it. This wasn't a ploy from the Crimson Maiden to get her to lower her guard, or anything else Natsuki might have feared. She really shouldn't be coming to this realization this late, but she'd been left with a flicker of worry in her mind that it was just barely possible that Shizuru was hiding something from her.

As Natsuki's eyes met Shizuru's, she knew beyond a doubt that this was genuine. She could feel her heart beating in her chest as she spoke, "Thank you, Shizuru." Natsuki smiled, trying to make sure Shizuru could see that Natsuki was being just as sincere. "I really do appreciate it."

Shizuru smiled back at Natsuki. "Would you like to find a place to sit down? There's a bench not far from here with a lovely view."

Natsuki nodded. "Sure." She followed Shizuru to the bench, taking a bit of time to look around the gardens as she did so. The sun was beginning to set, which might have been why Shizuru picked out this time to meet. As it turned out, the bench Shizuru had in mind was faced toward the setting sun. "You had this in mind, didn't you?" Natsuki said as she took a seat next to Shizuru on the bench.

"Ara? I have no idea what you could possibly mean," Shizuru said, coyly looking away from Natsuki.

"Sure you don't. But if that's your story, then I suppose I won't be able to thank you for the idea..." Natsuki said. She looked off toward the setting sun and let out a sigh. "It's a shame, really." A soft grunt came from Shizuru in response to this. "Sorry, did you say something, Shizuru?" Natsuki said, looking over at her girlfriend and trying to mimic her girlfriend's "innocent" expression.

Shizuru sniffed. "Natsuki doesn't have to be mean about it..."

"Huh?" Natsuki said. Her instincts told her she was walking into a trap, but she told her instincts to shut up and let her trigger the trap if there was a risk this was genuine. "What? No no! I just meant... um, it's alright if you want to take credit for this... it is a good idea, so you don't have to be modest. I wasn't trying to be mean! You just tease me all the time, so it's only fair!"

Shizuru's eyes turned to Natsuki. A smile had slowly spread across her lips while Natsuki spoke, and she seemed truly relieved now. Or perhaps "relieved" wasn't the best word. She leaned over and planted a quick kiss on Natsuki's cheek, then pulled back so she could look into the younger girl's eyes. "That wasn't a bad attempt at a tease, Natsuki, but you still have much to learn."

Natsuki blinked. She could feel warmth filling up her cheeks. She'd known that was a trick, and yet she was still embarrassed about this. She let out a low growl at Shizuru. "You're a witch or something. You have to be," Natsuki muttered. "No other way you can have this kind of effect on me..."

"Ara? And what kind of effect would that be?" Shizuru said. Natsuki really should have seen that response coming, but it was too late now. All she could really do was try to make the best of it.

"You make me..." Natsuki mumbled something under her breath, turning away from Shizuru to try to avoid answering. Perhaps that wasn't really making the best of it, but it was what she came up with. It didn't work.

"I'm sorry, I missed that. What do I make you?"

"Flustered! You make me flustered, alright! I can't think straight when you're here." It wasn't exactly the most dignified thing to say, but Natsuki found that as she started talking, she couldn't stop. "It's like wherever my mind tries to go, you're already there, sitting pretty and looking at me with your head tilted as if to ask me if I'm following you around. You're cheating somehow. You have to be."

"Natsuki..." Shizuru said. She was silent for a minute, and Natsuki turned back to see what was going through her mind. When her eyes finally locked with Shizuru's, the other girl whispered, "Forgive me..."

Natsuki blinked in confusion. "Huh? I didn't mean that seriously..."

Shizuru shook her head. "No, you're right, Natsuki. I... well, I have been cheating a bit. My dream Natsuki has been quite helpful figuring out what you might like to do on a date. Even if she won't admit it easily, I can tell when she likes an idea. But... you're right. This isn't fair to you."

_Oh. That._ "Oh, um... you... don't have to apologize for that, Shizuru. I... well, I have my own dream Shizuru, you know. I guess... it just makes things a bit awkward. It's like... we're fated to be together, so what do my choices matter? Do I really have any say if everyone's setting me up to be with you?" Shizuru's eyes widened slightly at this. Natsuki noticed a hint of moisture forming in them, and she scrambled to backtrack. "I'm not saying I don't like you! I do. You're great, and sweet, and I trust you more than anyone else I've known... Well, since my mother. I just... Can't help saying stupid things sometimes?"

Shizuru let out a gentle laugh at this. Her lips curled up into a smile. "It's alright, Natsuki. This really isn't normal, so a bit of awkwardness is understandable. If you want, I'll stop asking my 'Dream Natsuki' for tips. It'll be just us. Would that help?"

Natsuki nodded slowly. "I... I think it would. But, um... in addition to that... You mentioned doing... intimate things with that Natsuki? Er, well..." Natsuki turned away and muttered something about jealousy, though she realized Shizuru probably wouldn't be able to understand it.

"I've already stopped, don't worry," Shizuru said. Natsuki turned back, finding herself a bit surprised to hear this. Shizuru shook her head gently. "After I mentioned it to you before, I began to feel guilty about it. It feels like I was cheating. I've still had fantasies of you... and a few regular dreams, but nothing supernatural. I promise."

Despite the reassurance, Natsuki found that she couldn't face Shizuru just now. The thought that Shizuru was fantasizing about her was a bit much to take, and her cheeks were rapidly heating up. "Uh, um, that's alright... I guess..." The blush on her cheeks only grew as Natsuki's mind drifted toward fantasies about Shizuru. _No! No! Distraction! I need a distraction!_ "Um, anyway! I was wondering... About what happened with Yukino and Haruka yesterday..."

Shizuru seemed a bit surprised by the change in subject, but when Natsuki glanced over at her, she did seem to catch the fact that Natsuki was just looking for a change of subject. Shizuru smiled softly and said, "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Natsuki. I can't imagine that anyone would have reason to hurt Yukino."

"Hrm." Natsuki thought this over for a bit. "It's not really that I think someone might want to hurt Yukino specifically. I think this Crimson Maiden just gets a perverse kick out of doing this to anyone she can, and she just lucked into being able to trick Yukino into accepting a duel. Though I really don't know what the deal is with that memory charm... I've never heard of that happening before. Is it just to hide the fact that she wouldn't let Yukino back out of her forfeit? Or is it something else... did she think Yukino might have figured out who she was if the charm weren't used?"

"That's an interesting thought..." Shizuru said. "Do you think that the Maiden might have been someone that Yukino knows well? I don't her well enough myself to say who that might be, though, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out."

"Yeah... Maybe I'll ask her about that," Natsuki said. That was a promising idea: If Yukino had any close ties to either Nao or Midori, that could provide a strong incentive for whichever one of them was the Maiden to use a memory charm to keep her identity a secret. "But wait... if that is the case, then would anyone use someone they know well - and are probably friends with - to act out their sexual fantasies against her wishes? You'd have to be really twisted to do that..." _And I don't think even Nao is that screwed up,_ Natsuki silently added. She'd seen herself that Nao had a more sentimental side, even if she tried to hide it.

"Hmm... perhaps..." Shizuru said. She leaned back and looked upwards as she thought out loud, "that just means that it's unlikely anything bad actually happened to Yukino. It could all just be an unfortunate mistake."

"...I hope you're right," Natsuki said. She turned to face Shizuru. The other girl seemed to be staring up at the clouds right now, but that didn't mean she wasn't listening. "But I would really like to help Yukino figure out what happened. Is there... Er, do you have any other ideas that might be helpful?"

Shizuru didn't reply for a minute, though she was clearly thinking about it. "There might be some way to figure it out from the duel records... though those aren't updated frequently enough to figure out who's been battling as the Crimson Maiden. Aside from that..." Shizuru trailed off. She grimaced a bit, then let out a sigh and turned to look at Natsuki. "I don't know. I'm sorry. But I'll think about it, and I'll let you know if I have any ideas."

"It's alright, thanks," Natsuki said. She placed a hand on Shizuru's knee and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Just talking to you has already helped."

X-X-X

Natsuki found herself drifting off into thought as she and Shizuru returned from their date. She didn't know much about Midori at all, but Akane was in a much better position to get to know her right now. Natsuki would be better off trying to get to know more about Nao, and figure out if it was at all like her to be the Crimson Maiden. It was possible, from what she knew right now, but there was one problem that kept nagging at her: How could Nao have defeated Mai in battle? Even when Nao had stacked the deck heavily in her favor by rigging the duelspace, Natsuki had still managed to defeat her (albeit with a bit of help from a super-charged Duran). Mai was easily stronger than Natsuki, so there was no way that Nao could have defeated her in one of the school's duelspaces. Nao was ranked a bit below Natsuki on the school's rosters, but it was possible she was disguising her power level in duels. However, she would have been insane to disguise her power in her duel with Natsuki - she faced arrest if she lost. Perhaps she'd just gotten lucky in her fight with Mai? Or perhaps this just meant that it had to be Midori...

"Um, is Natsuki trying to subtly ask me to come in?" Shizuru said.

Natsuki froze in place. She'd been walking without thinking, and she'd somehow headed back to her own dormroom without thinking of giving Shizuru an out to head off to her own room. Natsuki had even opened the door and entered her room without realizing what she was doing. "Huh? Um... I... that is..." Natsuki said as she turned around, trying to come up with an explanation that wouldn't risk offending Shizuru.

"If... if it's alright with Natsuki though, could we put this off a bit? I still feel somewhat guilty about using my dream Natsuki to help speed things up between us, and this really wouldn't feel right..." Shizuru turned away as she said this, nervously biting her lip.

Was this a tease? Did she notice Natsuki's nervousness, and was this her way of giving Natsuki an easy way out? Or did she seriously misinterpret this, and was she being sincere? It certainly looked sincere... _Fuck! Now she thinks I want to jump in bed with her._

"Um... Er, I just blanked out! I wasn't thinking, and I... well, not that I don't want to, but you're right. Too soon," Natsuki said, hedging her bets against every possibility. She gave Shizuru a weak smile and said, "Sorry."

Shizuru smiled gently at Natsuki. For once, it seemed she actually wasn't trying to tease the other girl. "It's quite alright, Natsuki. I'll see you soon." Shizuru stepped over to Natsuki, then leaned in to plant a soft kiss on Natsuki's lips. As the kiss lingered, Natsuki could feel her legs beginning to weaken, and she briefly considered asking Shizuru if she might reconsider, but she was just barely able to resist. At last, Shizuru pulled away. "Good night, Natsuki. Sleep well."

_Like hell I'll be able to sleep after that..._ Natsuki thought, though she managed to return the words before she retreated into her room.


	14. Empty Shell

**Author's Note:** We're getting close to the point where this mystery will be solvable, or perhaps we've even passed it already. As a little encouragement to speculate (you know I love hearing it), I have a deal for you all: The first person to correctly guess the Maiden's identity in the forum thread or reviews for this story, starting from this chapter, will get a special treat from me (most likely a fic/chapter/scene request, but I won't limit it to that necessarily). One "official" guess allowed per chapter, so don't just guess everyone and think you'll win that way.

Good luck!

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 13: **Empty Shell

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

There was no avoiding it today, unless Yukino wanted to make an even bigger issue out of what had happened between her and the Crimson Maiden. She had to go to class, or else the faculty would notice her absence and start asking questions. Although she'd probably be bombarded with questions from well-meaning friends if she did show up, it was probably the lesser evil.

The morning wasn't too bad, thankfully. Yukino shared a couple classes with Natsuki and Mai, and the two of them both seemed to get the message to leave her alone. Well, Mai got the message, and Natsuki was just being herself. It wasn't really the morning that Yukino was worried about, however. Lunch was the biggest threat, followed by her Computing course in the afternoon. She just had to take it one thing at a time, doing what she needed to do to get through the day. For lunch, Yukino's solution was simply to grab some food and then eat in her room. Just her luck, she ran into Irina in line for food, but a harsh look managed to shut off her inquiries. She could apologize later. Today, Yukino just needed to survive.

As it turned out, Yukino's Computing course was where the problems began. Akane was in her class, but she didn't sit near Yukino, so the only worry was that she might try to talk to Yukino at the beginning or end of class. The bigger problem was the fact that both Nao and Midori were in this class. One of them she could probably handle, but since Scholarship classes were taken by girls from multiple years together, Yukino had to face both of them at once. And on top of that, Nao just happened to sit right next to Yukino during the class.

It was nearly impossible for Yukino to focus on the class. However much she tried, her mind kept drifting to the two suspects in this classroom. One of them had tricked Yukino into believing she was Haruka so that Yukino would accept a high-stakes duel. One of them had then done something to convince Yukino to stay through the forfeit, or tricked her into it, or forced her, and wouldn't even let her remember what had happened, making her think she'd just made love to Haruka. She'd felt violated. She _still_ felt violated. And now she had to sit in the same room with them and pretend that nothing had happened.

"Yukino...? Are you alright?" Nao whispered.

Yukino forced herself to freeze in place. She knew she'd been trembling, but she didn't think it would be noticeable. Apparently, she was wrong, though. And it wasn't just noticeable, but it was so bad that even Nao, of all people, was concerned about her. That or she was taunting her. _No. No, that's not it. I won't let that be it._ "I'm fine," Yukino stiffly whispered back, focusing her gaze on the computer. If she looked at Nao, she might just lose it.

Perhaps it was the tone of the whisper, or perhaps she simply didn't care enough to inquire further, but Nao thankfully let the matter rest. The rest of the course was mostly alright, though Yukino still had trouble focusing on it, and her notes weren't nearly up to her usual standard. With this being the case, it was just her luck that as Yukino was on her way out the door, she'd be intercepted by Midori.

"Hey, Yukino," Midori said. "I, um, kind of zoned out during the part on internet research. Could you send me your notes on that?"

"Um, sorry, I don't have them," Yukino said. _At least not in any form I'd share._

"Huh? But don't you..."

"I've got them!" Akane said, stepping in between Midori and Yukino. "I'll e-mail them to you this afternoon, alright?"

_I owe you one, Akane,_ Yukino thought as she slipped out of the classroom.

X-X-X

Yukino wasn't quite sure how she ended up at Haruka's room after her classes were over; she seemed to have drifted there on instinct. It certainly wasn't rare for her to visit Haruka, and she often did choose to go see her upperclassman on a Monday, but she certainly hadn't been planning on doing it today. Her initial plan was to simply head back to her bedroom, work on homework, do some reading, then grab a late dinner when others weren't likely to be around.

But somehow she'd ended up outside Haruka's room instead of her own. Perhaps her subconscious was telling her something. Haruka never actually had replied to Yukino's message; the business with learning about the Crimson Maiden had distracted both of them from that. It did at least prove that Yukino's feelings certainly weren't going to stop Haruka from caring about her, but it didn't clarify anything about how Haruka felt. And if Yukino's subconscious could be trusted right now, she was tired of not knowing.

It wasn't long after Yukino knocked on the door that Haruka opened it. She didn't seem at all surprised to see Yukino. In fact, judging by her reaction alone, one would never have known that today was any different from any other day Yukino might come over to visit her friend. "Hey there, Yukino," Haruka said, backing away from the door so Yukino could enter. "How has your day been?"

"Fine," Yukino said. It was a lie, but that wasn't what she'd come here to discuss. Telling the truth would have just gotten things farther off track. She walked over to Haruka's bed and took a seat on it. "Haruka... can we talk?"

Haruka nodded. "Of course. What did you want to talk about?" Haruka's voice betrayed no indication that anything might be wrong. In most other circumstances, Yukino would have found that endearing, but this time, there were two huge things involving Yukino that Haruka probably should have had on her mind.

"It's about my note to you. We... kind of got distracted, but what I said is still true," Yukino said. She took a moment to steel herself, and she met Haruka's gaze. "I have a crush on you, Haruka." _And that's probably putting it lightly._

Anyone else looking on probably wouldn't have noticed a change in Haruka, but Yukino knew her friend better than most. Haruka was distinctively uncomfortable with this, and the realization made Yukino's heart sink. "Well... that's alright. I don't really mind," Haruka said, just a faint hint of nervousness in her voice.

"That's not what I want to know," Yukino said. Haruka might just be trying to avoid her own feelings, or she might honestly have no romantic feelings for Yukino. Either way, Yukino had to know. "Haruka... can you tell me, how do you feel about me? Is there even a chance you could feel the same way?" Yukino's heart was beating so loudly as she said this that she was sure Haruka could hear it. She didn't know if she could take a negative answer, but she also couldn't take not knowing.

"I... well..." Haruka said. The nervousness in her features became a bit more apparent. "I just... I never thought about you like that, Yukino. You're like a sister to me, and it just never occurred to me." Of course. Of course she'd say that. Yukino didn't know why she'd ever thought anything else might be possible. If Haruka had the slightest feelings for her, Yukino - and likely everyone else in school - would have known.

"It's alright... I understand," Yukino said. She began to get up from Haruka's bed, but her friend's voice stopped her.

"Wait," Haruka said. Her nervousness actually seemed to have faded a bit. She was concerned now, but that wasn't really surprising. "Yukino, you have to understand... I've never felt that way about anyone. I'm not saying there's not a chance between us, so please don't leave. I... I can't promise I'll ever develop feelings for you, but on the Armitage family name, I swear this: I will devote myself to finding out if I can. From this day forward, we're going to date. If I can possibly love you, I will. You have my word."

"Haruka..." Yukino said. She was sure her cheeks were red, and she could feel tears beginning to well up in her eyes, but she couldn't care less. She jumped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend. "Thank you..."

Haruka chuckled nervously. This certainly wasn't the first time Yukino had hugged her, but perhaps the recent developments in their relationship had made her think differently about it. "Um, you really don't have to do this, Yukino. It's the least I could do for a friend, after all..."

Yukino couldn't help but smile at this. Haruka was willing to jump headfirst into figuring out if a relationship was possible between them, and she said it was the least she could do. This was why Yukino had fallen for her. "I know, Haruka. I know," Yukino said, deciding to humor her friend.

"Well, don't think I mean to say that I'd only do the least for you!" Haruka said. Apparently Yukino's comment had struck her the wrong way, or perhaps she was still nervous about all of this. "I'd do anything I could for you, Yukino."

_Anything..._ Yukino pulled back from the hug. There was one thing that had been bothering her, and perhaps Haruka could help. It would be a lot to ask, though. "Well, um, to be honest... There is something," Yukino said. She kept her gaze focused on her hands as she spoke, trying to figure out the best words to use.

"Of course. What is it?"

"Well... on Friday, I somehow came to believe that you were the Crimson Maiden. I know it sounds insane, but the timing of the challenge from her was pretty suspicious. On top of that, well I..." Yukino's cheeks filled with red. She had to admit this. "I gathered other evidence... not entirely ethically. I figured it would be alright if I just wrote myself a note with the conclusion and wiped my memory of everything else, but it still doesn't make me feel right about it." Yukino let out a sigh. She forced herself to look up at Haruka, who seemed to be baffled by what Yukino was saying. "What I'm saying is, I used your password to access your computer to search it for clues, then wiped my memory of it. Something I found led me to believe that you are the Crimson Maiden. I'm sorry, I really am."

It took a while for Haruka to react to this. "Yukino... I... I already know that the Maiden was matriculating you." Yukino muttered "manipulating" under her breath, but she didn't interrupt Haruka. "I can't blame you for that. And... I really don't have anything to hide. I don't know what you could possibly have found on my computer, though... But let's find out. Just promise me you'll come to me first before doing anything like this again, okay? I don't want to think that you can't trust me."

"I know, Haruka... I know. I'm really sorry... I'll make it up to you somehow. You can... browse on my computer if you want. Or ask me anything you want. It's only fair..." Even as Yukino spoke, she found her gaze being drawn to Haruka's computer.

Out of the corner of her eye, Yukino noticed Haruka smiling. "It's alright, Yukino. Let's find out what you found."

X-X-X

"I just don't get it..." Yukino said. In a way, the fact that she hadn't found anything on Haruka's computer was actually making this more awkward. It denied her a good reason for doing all of this, and it made her delve into more and more of Haruka's private files. Though, at least Haruka had been telling the truth when she'd said that she didn't have anything to hide. Yukino had looked at Haruka's browser history, her e-mails, and even her homework assignments, and there wasn't a single thing in any of them that might have embarrassed Haruka.

There also wasn't anything to link Haruka to the Crimson Maiden. Yukino had already spent more time looking through Haruka's computer now then she had the night she'd fought the Maiden, and there was nothing. If she'd found this, there was no way she'd have written herself a note saying that Haruka was the Crimson Maiden.

"It's a trick," Haruka said, staring at the computer as if she didn't trust it. "That Maiden bitch must have tricked you somehow. There's no other way she'd have gotten you to think I was her."

Yukino nodded her head slowly. She was starting to believe that Haruka was right. She'd been tricked somehow. "Perhaps she planted something on your computer, then erased it..." Yukino browsed to Haruka's desktop and checked the recycling bin. "Empty... I guess she wouldn't make a mistake like that. I might find something in the access logs, though." Most users didn't realize it, but any external access to a computer was always logged, allowing one to see who'd used it remotely. It was a bit tricky to check the computer's access logs, but it was even harder to erase them without leaving evidence of tampering. Yukino wasn't experienced enough to be able to know what tampered logs might look like, but she just hoped that the Maiden hadn't thought to alter them.

"Nothing again..." Yukino muttered. She blinked in disbelief at the empty log. Was the Maiden that good? Why would she even go to all this trouble in the first place? "Wait... why would the Maiden delete the evidence anyway? She didn't know I'd use a memory charm on myself after looking at it. Did she not want you to see it, Haruka? But then, why would she bother altering the access logs? She'd have to have predicted I'd go through your computer again like this..."

"Maybe she used Divination," Haruka said.

Yukino turned her head to look at her friend. "You can use it for that?"

"I don't think you can learn how to hack into a computer through Divination, but if you can contact a powerful enough spirit, you can... Well, they call it 'pathfinding.' You can learn about specific actions you have to take to lead to a desired outcome," Haruka said. "It's all Crystal-level stuff, though, and only a student specializing in Divination could would be able to understand any spirit powerful enough to do something like this."

"A Crystal then..." Yukino said. It had to be Midori. She was unaccounted for when Yukino was battling the Maiden, and the only other suspect remaining, Nao, was still a Pearl.

"Right. There's only one person it could be," Haruka said. A fire lit up in her eyes, and she pushed herself up from the bed. "Stay here, Yukino. I'm going to go have a talk with Laura Bianchi. Leave everything to me!"

_Laura Bianchi...?_ "Haruka, wait!" Yukino called out as soon as she'd processed the name. Laura couldn't have pulled off the glamour, as she didn't look anything like the Maiden, but Haruka apparently didn't know that.

"Don't worry, Yukino, I'll be fine. There's no way she can beat me in a fair fight. Just wait right here, and I'll take care of everything!" Haruka said, running out of her room even as she spoke. In exasperation, Yukino slumped forward, staring blankly at the computer screen in front of her. An empty access log would be pretty thin evidence, even if it actually was Laura. It wasn't as if Haruka could actually do anything about this with just that. It was all circumstantial. Maybe the Maiden had deleted the records of accessing Haruka's computer, or perhaps she'd never accessed it at all.

_Wait... _Yukino blinked to clear her eyes. _It's empty... Not one person accessed Haruka's computer since I set it up for her. Not even me._


	15. Divine Eyes

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating: **M

**Chapter 14: **Divine Eyes

X-X-X

**November 24, 1406**

Although Yukino had hit a dead end in her investigation of how the Crimson Maiden had tricked her, the fact that her relationship with Haruka had taken a step up was enough to help restore her confidence. She was able to have lunch with her friends without problem now, and she'd filled them in on what she had - or hadn't - found out.

"So what could have possibly convinced you that Haruka was the Maiden then?" Mai asked as Yukino finished her explanation.

"I've been thinking about that a lot," Yukino said. "There are only two things I can think of. The first is just a different way of hacking. If the Maiden were really skilled - and I mean more skilled than I am - it's possible she could have hacked into the school's DNS and altered it so that I would connect to her computer instead of Haruka's. She'd have to set it up to look exactly like Haruka's computer, though. It's really too much work to be plausible, though. I would have logged on with a suspicious and curious mindset, so any small flaw would have stood out to me. Although it's possible, I just can't believe anyone else in the school has the skill to do this.

"The second possibility," she continued, "which is a bit more likely, is that she cast an illusion to trick me somehow. She'd still have to know what my thought process would be to do this, which would require a lot of skill with Divination. And well, according to Haruka, the only student who meets the bill there is Laura Bianchi, who was able to provide an alibi for when I fought the Crimson Maiden."

"Perhaps Nao," Natsuki said. Yukino looked over at her. She hadn't yet had a chance to check who else in the school was specializing in Divination, so this came as news to her. "I don't know if she's strong enough, though, but she is good at it."

"That's the problem, isn't it?" Mai said. "Nao meets every criteria we have for the Crimson Maiden, except it just seems like she can't be powerful enough. She'd have to be a prodigy - and I'm talking Lena Sayers level prodigy - and be perfectly hiding it from everyone, to pull off everything we know the Maiden can do."

Akane shook her head. "I'm not even sure Midori could do it all. From talking to her, I've been able to gather that she's alright with Divination and Illusion, but nothing special. Though perhaps she's lying to me about that. As far as I've been able to gather, her skills are in Abjuration and Evocation, which would help in battle as the Maiden, but they wouldn't help explain how the Maiden could be so manipulative. That and... well, sometimes I get the impression that Midori couldn't hold down a secret identity if her life depended on it."

"Unless it's all an act," Irina said. She kept her eyes glued to her notebook even as she spoke. "It seems easier to believe that Midori could hide a dark side than it is to believe that Nao could be a prodigy and give no hint of it." Irina placed her pencil down and looked up. "But either way, we don't have any hard evidence for or against either of them. I think it's time we took another tack. Let's look at motive."

"How complicated could the motive be?" Akane said. "The Maiden seems to me to just be someone who gets a sexual thrill from dominating others." Akane paused for a moment, her eyes slowly widening. "Wait, you're not saying we should try to find out what Midori and Nao are like in bed, are you? Because I really didn't sign up for that..."

"No no..." Irina said. "Although... no, I can't ask that of you. Though if anyone does want to volunteer..." Silence, with a few stony glares mixed in, was all that met Irina. "Alright, fine. I wasn't thinking of that anyway. My idea was that we could probably learn more about the Maiden's motives by looking at the exceptions to what she does, rather than the rules. As far as I've been able to tell, there have been three duels of hers that are exceptional in some way. First, there's a rumor about a student who displeased the Maiden, and something bad happened to her because of it... though the rumor isn't clear on what. Sara, did you hear about anything like this in your investigation?"

"Actually... I did, but the student refused to be interviewed," Sara said. "I was able to gather a bit more from one of her friends, though I can't confirm any of it."

"It could still be useful," Irina said. "What did you find out?"

"Well, what her friend claims is that this student - let's call her 'T' - accepted the Maiden's challenge to a duel, with no intention of even bothering to fight the Maiden. She saw her defeat as a foregone conclusion, so her plan was to just surrender as soon as the duel started, and then have some fun. Apparently, it didn't quite work out that way. I don't think even her friends know what happened to T, but the Maiden wasn't pleased with her. The rumor around school is that the Maiden was particularly harsh with her, forcing her to do things that she didn't want, and never letting her reach orgasm, but I don't think there's any real basis for that rumor. For all we know, the Maiden could have simply refused to do anything with T, and that's what pissed her off."

"Hmm, well, we can probably say that the Maiden was upset at least, right?" Irina said. "And that kind of ties in with the second exception: her duel with Mai. According to Sara's report - and reading between the lines a bit - her encounter with Mai was the only time she actually touched her opponent with her own hands. Mai was also the only opponent who ever landed a hit against the Maiden."

Yukino blinked at this. She'd landed a hit on the Maiden as well, though she hadn't mentioned that part to anyone. She didn't feel right interrupting Irina right now, so she didn't say anything.

"So here's what I think," Irina continued. "The Maiden doesn't just want to dominate people; she wants a good fight. Maybe it helps get her in the mood or something. So, she rewards those who fight well, and punishes - somehow - those who don't fight her at all."

"Hmm..." Akane said. She was silent for a bit, but she continued soon enough, "That actually does sound like Midori. I know she normally slacks off a lot, but I've seen her get really engaged when faced with a challenge. Maybe even aroused, though I'm really not the best one to judge that. Though there was this one time, when she was teleconferencing with this researcher in Fuuka. They got into a debate, and as it got a bit heated, Midori ended up... making a rather unwise bet on the outcome. Though she didn't really seem to mind losing that much..." Akane shook her head. "Anyway, the point is, Midori certainly appreciates a worthy opponent."

There was a moment of silence, before Mikoto, of all people, broke it. "What was the bet?"

"Er... something about Zipang's history, I think," Akane said. "It was a pretty obscure point, with no relevance to any of our research, but Midori and Youko both got hung up on it. One thing led to another: They made a bet, Kazuya found an old book that confirmed that Youko was right, and Midori had to... erm..." Akane's cheeks filled with red. "Let's just say it kind of fits the Maiden's idea of a good forfeit, but much more tame."

Irina stared at Akane. "Why didn't you mention this sooner?"

"It just happened yesterday, give me a break!" Akane said. "And I'm trying not to think about it too much, anyway."

Irina grunted. "Fine. Well, there's one final thing to look at: The duel with Yukino. This was unusual in more than a few ways. She agreed to reveal her identity to Yukino - under a memory charm - before even fighting, which I think is probably the biggest one. And she left Yukino as the only person who wasn't able to remember what she did with the Maiden. This has to mean that the Maiden sees Yukino as special in some way. Yukino... do you have any ideas on this?"

Yukino looked around the table, noticing uncomfortably that everyone was looking at her right now. "Um, I really don't know. I never paid that much attention to either Midori or Nao..." Could one of them really have a crush on her? Even Haruka didn't have a crush on Yukino - at least yet. It was hard to believe that anyone else might. But then again, Yukino had been fixated on Haruka for quite a while, so she could have easily missed someone else feeling something for her. "I don't know, sorry. I guess I can try to keep an eye out, though."

Irina nodded. "Perfect. I think we're finally getting somewhere with this case. With a little luck, I'll have it by the end of the week. Just leave it to me! And, well... maybe a bit of help from Mai."

"Huh? What do you..." Mai started to say, but the school bell cut her off.

"Gotta get to class, sorry," Irina said, ducking away from Mai's gaze and packing her books up. "I'll explain my plan later!"

X-X-X

A soft knock came from Yukino's door. "I guess that would be her now," she said as she got up from her chair and headed toward the door. She could feel Haruka glaring from behind her - when Yukino had told Haruka that Shizuru wanted to come over and talk about something in private, Haruka had insisted on being there to make sure nothing happened to Yukino. Yukino had tried to protest - although Shizuru had previously been a suspect for the Crimson Maiden, she trusted Natsuki completely when she said that Shizuru was occupied during Yukino's duel - but Haruka wouldn't hear of it. Perhaps she didn't trust Natsuki as much as Yukino did, or perhaps - and Yukino was probably just being hopeful here - she was just jealous of someone like Shizuru wanting private time with Yukino.

"Hello, Yukino," Shizuru said with a smile and a polite nod as Yukino opened the door for her. "May I come in?"

"Sure," Yukino said, backing off to allow Shizuru entry.

"Ah... Hello, Haruka," Shizuru said, smiling at her classmate as if there wasn't a hint of rivalry between the two of them. "I was wondering if you'd be here."

"You didn't think I'd let you get Yukino alone, did you?" Haruka said. "I'm still not convinced that Kruger isn't covering for you, though I haven't been able to prove anything yet. Now, tell us what you want and get out."

"Well, I came here with the hope of helping Yukino, but I suppose I won't be able to do that if I must leave as soon as I tell you this..." Shizuru said.

Yukino let out a sigh. She could see why Shizuru tended to aggravate Haruka so much. "No, it's fine. Please, have a seat, and let's talk," she said. Looking around the room, there weren't really that many places to sit down. "Um, why don't you take my desk chair?" Yukino said, as she took a seat next to Haruka on the bed. There was no way she'd ask Shizuru to sit next to Haruka.

Shizuru nodded slightly in response. Seemingly oblivious to Haruka's glare, she turned the chair around and took a seat. "Alright. I was thinking about what happened to Yukino with the Crimson Maiden..." Shizuru actually paused for a moment in reaction to Haruka's glare, but she continued on soon enough. "I realized that it might actually be possible to find something out about what happened to Yukino."

"I already tried it," Haruka said with a grunt. "Laura Bianchi was quite willing to prove her innocence to me last night. She asked a few spirit guides what happened to Yukino, but they all said that something was blocking them off from that knowledge. This Maiden really wants plausible definability for whatever she did..."

"Deniability, Haruka," Yukino whispered, hoping that Shizuru wouldn't hear her.

Shizuru nodded, not paying attention to Haruka's slip-up. "Natsuki told me that the Maiden had blocked off Divinations about her identity and activities, but I think I have a way to get around that. The key is, we don't need to look at the past to find out what happened. We might be able to find out what we need to know by analyzing the present. In particular, we could try to use a few Divinations to determine whether or not Yukino is still a virgin. Well, I'm assuming she was before this happened, at least..."

"I knew it!" Haruka yelled, standing up from the bed. "This was all a plot to indulge your perverted interests! Well, I won't have any of that! Leave now, and if I ever see you nea-"

"Haruka, wait!" Yukino said. She stood up and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, trying to calm her down. "I think... I think she's just trying to help, so please..."

Haruka growled for a moment, but it slowly faded. With a bit of coaxing, Yukino was able to get her to sit back down on the bed.

"I can go if this is too much..." Shizuru said.

"No, please," Yukino said. "I want to know. I need to know."

Shizuru nodded. "Then let's get started."

X-X-X

_In a sense, Garderobe was incredibly crowded. There were more than a hundred students on its campus, each of them a magical adept, meaning that each of them left a strong imprint on the spirit world. The faculty members had even more of an impact, with some, such as Lena Sayers, seeming four times as large as any student. On top of this, the Divination going on at Garderobe had attracted many spirits to it, crowding it ever more._

Many of these spirits were primal forces with no will of their own. They aided students by performing simple tasks or relaying simple answers. Right now, a few concept spirits were excitedly trying to communicate with the girl that Natsuki had fallen for.

Some of these spirits were as intelligent as animals, and they served the students as "Childs." Judging by Duran, S presumed that most of these were the souls of departed animals which had lingered around for one reason or another.

There were also those spirits like S herself, who were the souls of departed humans. Although they were by far the most intelligent type of spirit, an odd paradox led to the fact that they were also the most difficult to locate, observe, and communicate with. It had taken S quite a while, but she'd believed that she had found all of these spirits that were around Garderobe. At the center of the campus, where the spirit realm was thickest and deepest, was F. She was the source of magic for the entire school, and so everything else in the spirit realm nearby found itself attracted to her, repelled by her, or simply orbiting around her at one point or another.

Aside from F, there were many spirits that seemed to have a strong connection to a past or current student. While S had been near Garderobe, she'd actually witnessed one of these spirits fading away after his daughter graduated, being pulled into the future for his reincarnation, and she'd also been witness to another spirit which had recently formed, and who she'd taught a few things about this "life."

All of that was normal, but the wealth of magic near Garderobe lent itself to many abnormal phenomena as well. The most enduring of these abnormalities that S had noticed was a pair of entities that somewhat resembled spirits, but which always managed to find themselves hidden away from regular spirits. This seemed to be of no intention of their own, but rather an unfortunate fact of their nature. S had briefly been able to communicate with one of them, but she still had little idea what it was. It actually looked more like an echo of a spirit than a spirit itself. But even calling it an "echo" didn't feel quite right. It was more like an absence of the spirit realm itself - instead of being something, there was less than nothing. It was as if it were a spirit's shadow, but without any spirit to cast this shadow.

There was something else as well. Something darker. If the two odd entities were echos, then this was an echo of an echo. S only rarely sensed this dark entity, but something about it was fundamentally wrong. It wasn't natural. It was twisted, but S had a frightening sense that it would only be worse were it untwisted. She had mostly tried to steer clear of it, but she could do so no longer.

The dark entity was near the girl that Natsuki liked - Shizuru, her name was. Her current divination _had caught its attention. She didn't seem to realize this, but S couldn't ignore it. She had to do something. There would be backlash from this; of that, S was sure, but she couldn't ignore it._

Shizuru's eyes snapped open, and a green light burst from them. Her hair seemed to glow with a black light, and her mouth spoke with a voice that was not her own. "You must stop! A dark gaze falls on this one."

The light emanating from Shizuru faded in an instant. As the spirit left her, Shizuru's stance began to waver. Haruka shot up from the bed in an instant to support her. "Shizuru! Stay with us. What happened?"

Shizuru blinked her eyes a few times. She widened them for a moment, and an expression of fear and worry crossed her face for a moment, but she quickly covered it up. "I... I have to go," Shizuru said, her voice wavering. She seemed to have weakened from this encounter - from Yukino's experience with Divination, that wasn't unusual after a non-specialist contacted a spirit - but she was also afraid, probably with good reason. "I'm sorry. As far as I can tell, you're still a virgin, Yukino, but I..." Shizuru closed her eyes briefly. "I couldn't find out any specifics. I can't rule out that something less might have happened to you. I'm sorry, but I..." Shizuru took a few deep breaths, then opened her eyes. "I think I need to lie down."

X-X-X

"A jeweler? Seriously?" Nao said, raising an eyebrow.

"We want to find out about a gem, don't we?" Natsuki said. She walked on into the store, not paying any attention to Nao's complaints. It had taken some work, some pressure, and a couple veiled threats to get Nao to agree to this, and Natsuki wasn't going to waste it. Technically, since Nao wasn't actually letting Natsuki borrow the gem, she wasn't even holding up her end of the deal now, but Natsuki didn't plan to mention that until she had a better idea of how to investigate this gem. This was a good place to start, if nothing else.

Nao let out a grunt before she followed Natsuki into the store. There were a few other customers around, but the jeweler noticed Natsuki immediately and came over to meet her. He smiled at her a bit cautiously and nodded his head. "Miss Kruger. What can I do for you today?"

"Don't worry, Fritz," Natsuki said. "I'm not tracking anything down today." She gestured to Nao. "I've got a gem I'd like you to appraise."

Natsuki could feel Nao staring holes into the side of her head, but she resolutely ignored it until Nao took the Shadow Spinel out of her pocket. "Be careful with it," she said. "If I find a single scratch on it, I'll make sure you find a much larger one on yourself."

Fritz paused as he reached out toward the gem. He was a professional, and Natsuki had never known him to scratch a gem, but Nao's tone of voice was enough to make most people fear for their lives. Eventually, he got up the courage to take it from Nao's hand. Fritz took a cautious step away from Nao while he began to inspect the gem. After a moment, he said, "What type of gem is this supposed to be?"

"Nao says it's a spinel," Natsuki said. "But I thought those were usually red."

"Not always..." Fritz said. He beckoned Natsuki and Nao to follow him as he walked behind the counter. "It's a common misconception. Many spinels are indeed red, but it isn't unheard of for them to be other colors." Fritz placed the gem beneath a magnifying glass as he began to inspect it. "Blue is rather rare for spinels, though, which would make this rather valuable... If that were what it is. However, I don't believe that's possible."

"Why not? What is it, then?" Natsuki said.

"I'm not quite sure," Fritz replied. "The color is wrong for a cobalt spinel. When spinel is colored blue by the presence of cobalt, it appears as a rich, dark blue, not a light blue, or cyan, like this gem. It's roughly the right color to be turquoise, but turquoise is always opaque, unlike this. Not aquamarine, either... You could never cut it like this. Maybe a topaz, though. I've seen some pretty close to this color, and it has about the right index of refraction. If that's the case, this would be quite valuable indeed."

A sniffing sound came from behind Natsuki. She turned to eye Nao, who had turned her head away. "Cold," she said. Natsuki didn't believe her, but she decided now wasn't the time to press the issue. Especially if this was because Nao had gotten to thinking about her mother - that wasn't a subject Natsuki was willing to tease her about.

"There's something off about it, though..." Fritz said, shaking his head slowly. "Miss Kruger, would mind coming here? Tell me, doesn't this gem appear to be just a bit brighter than the rest of the room?"

Natsuki walked over to Fritz and took a look at the gem. She didn't spend much time inspecting the gems she recovered in the course of her work, so her eyes weren't as good as Fritz's. However, he did seem to have a point. The gem seemed to glow just a little. "It's probably enchanted somehow," Natsuki said. "That might be why it's glowing." Another sniff came from behind her, but she ignored it. If Nao couldn't keep her emotions under control, that was her problem.

"No... I don't think that's it," Fritz said. "Watch." He placed his hand over the gem, blocking off light from hitting it. When it was shielded from most of the room's light, its glow seemed to diminish, rather than becoming more obvious, as Natsuki would have expected. "I really can't say what's going on here. It's almost as if the gem adds to any light that hits it, but that simply shouldn't be possible."

_It also shouldn't be possible for it to act as a source of magical power, but it seems to have no problem doing that._ "Hm," Natsuki said.

"We're done here," Nao said. She pushed her way past Natsuki and grabbed the gem away from Fritz before either of them had a chance to react, and she ran off toward the door.

"Hey Nao! Wait up!" Natsuki said. She certainly wasn't done. After all the work it had taken to get this opportunity, she wasn't going to waste it. She reached out to grab Nao's arm just as the other girl shot out of the jeweler's store, but this seemed to throw Nao off-balance. Nao twisted around, and she and Natsuki tumbled to the pavement outside the shop. "Gah..." Natsuki grunted as she picked herself up. "What the fuck was that about, Nao?" she said.

No reply was forthcoming. Natsuki looked down, finding that Nao seemed to be making no effort to get up. A rough groan was the only sign of life from her, and there was a worrying amount of blood pooled near her face. Natsuki's heart rose to her throat. She wanted to swear, but she just didn't have it in herself right now.

Natsuki knelt down. "Come on, I'll get you through this," she said as she picked Nao up.


	16. Crimson Shadow

**Author's Note:** For anyone who's been following on my LJ, this has already all been posted, but I've reordered it a bit. I have another section in the works, but these parts fit together thematically.

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating: **M

**Chapter 15: **Crimson Shadow

X-X-X

**November 25, 1406**

Mai still wasn't sure exactly how Shiho's room managed to get misty whenever she began to play her flute. As far as she knew, no Divination spells created a mist like this as a side effect. For that matter, they didn't require the user to play a flute either - or any other instrument for that matter. In the end, Mai just chalked it up to one of Shiho's personal quirks. As a Coral, students were usually taught a lot of tricks for casting spells, which usually included vocal incantations or hand motions to help their mind get in the right state, but by the Pearl year, most students were expected to be able to be able to perform all the critical components for spellcasting silently and motionlessly. There were a few students, however, who'd gone the other direction with it, and had added even more theatrics to their spellcasting. Since Shiho seemed to be particularly good at Divination, Mai didn't feel that it was her place to complain about all the theatrics she'd included.

A golden figure slowly solidified within the mist. Two emerald eyes lit up, and a smoky smile crossed the figure's face. "Hello, Mai," S said.

"Hello, S," Mai replied. "So... was that you who possessed Shizuru yesterday?" After Yukino had told Mai about what had happened, she knew she had to use her connections here to try to find out more. This was the first time she'd ever heard about a possession - however brief - on campus.

S's face darkened a bit. "Yes. Please tell Shizuru that I'm deeply sorry for what I had to do. It wasn't an action I took lightly, though perhaps I was a bit hasty in making the choice."

"Well, why did you have to take it at all? What was going on?"

S was silent for a moment. "It's hard to explain. I sensed a presence watching Shizuru while she was Divining. There was something about it that frightened me. It was not a spirit as I know them, but that alone wasn't reason enough to fear it. It was... artificial."

Mai blinked. "Artificial? You mean, someone created a spirit? Or something like a spirit?"

S's head slowly shook. "No, I do not believe that was the case. I believe that it was altered somehow, as if someone had reason to mask its true nature. An inexperienced Diviner would see it as benign, so I could not trust Shizuru to stop her Divining before she got too close to it."

"Okay..." Mai said. "Well, what is its true nature? Is it dangerous?" This was getting beyond her ability to handle, if what S said was true. Mai would have to go to a faculty member about this later, but she could still try to gather information about it now.

"I do not know, unfortunately," S said. "I can barely perceive this entity's mask, much less its true nature. Humans seem to have an easier time communicating with spirit-like entities such as this one, but I would not recommend one take the risk. I could sense danger from it, but nothing specific. I assume that it would only be altered to hide an evil face, and not to hide a benign nature."

"Alright," Mai said. "Thanks, S. Is there anything else you can tell me about it?"

S was silent and motionless for a long while. By this point, Mai had gotten used to this behavior from the spirit, so she waited until she was ready to reply. Eventually, S's features became animate again and she spoke. "I sense that F, the spirit of Garderobe's Shinso, may know something more, but I am unable to communicate with her very well at the moment. If someone at Garderobe has a method to converse with her, I would recommend they do so."

Mai nodded. "I'll talk to the faculty about this. Thank you, S."

X-X-X

It was becoming clear to Akane that this research project was beginning to stall. It all revolved around exploring Fuuka, and she, Midori, and Lena didn't leave until the weekend. Fuuka had been of immense interest to researchers for quite some time, and they'd already picked off all the low-hanging fruit when it came to what could be learned about it. Until they were actually there, and they could delve deeper into the mystery, all the team could really do was go over previous research. By this point, they'd even run out of relevant research, and all they were left with was random stories that they couldn't definitively prove weren't connected to Fuuka.

It was really no wonder that Midori and Youko had resorted to spicing things up by making random bets on what they found out - at least, when Lena and Shiro weren't present. They didn't seem to much care about what they did in front of Akane and Kazuya, unfortunately, which had a tendency to make their teleconferences rather awkward for the two younger students. Like now, for instance.

"That one's mine," Midori said with a smirk. "And so's your blouse." The fact that Midori had already been stripped to her underwear didn't seem to take any of the thrill out of this particular victory.

Akane let out a groan and buried her head in her book. She'd thought she'd made her opinion quite clear on this matter, so it was either apathy or some perverse thrill that drove Midori to keep doing this. She could talk to Lena about it, perhaps, or at least threaten to do so... but she was supposed to learn as much as she could about Midori, and that meant letting her run wild, even if it was a gross violation of school rules, common decency, and common sense. As it was, the prospect of Midori being the Crimson Maiden was getting more and more likely. If Irina was somehow able to pin that on her before she left for Fuuka, then Midori would get punishment enough for all of this. And if it turned out that it wasn't Midori, then Akane could always bring this behavior up with Lena later.

Akane stared at the screen as Youko stripped off her blouse, but she wasn't looking at Youko right now. Akane's eyes were fixed on Kazuya instead, watching for the slightest hint that he was ogling either Midori or Youko. Perhaps it was because she was surrounded by girls that she'd found herself magnetically drawn to the first boy she'd gotten to know in the past two years, but Kazuya actually did seem to be nice. He was currently making a resolute effort not to look at either the screen or at Youko, as he had been since Midori and Youko had started this game. Akane had briefly wondered if he might be gay, but when a blush had crossed his face when Midori had first taken her shirt off on Monday - even though he wasn't looking at it - Akane felt she had all the proof she needed that he wasn't.

The problem was how to get his attention. Sitting next to Midori - who was currently wearing nothing but a provocative set of red lingerie - that task seemed impossible. She might be able to have better luck when they got to Fuuka, though. She just had to wait it out and not pull her hair out over Midori's behavior in the meantime.

"Bah, this one's easy," Midori said. "I say it's unrelated. Placing my bet that it can be traced to before the Fuuka incident."

"You think so?" Youko said, raising an eyebrow. "I'd say it's quite relevant, or haven't you been paying attention to my scientific briefings?"

Midori probably hadn't, but of course, she wasn't going to admit it. She snorted and replied, "It's a slam dunk." She turned to Akane and said, "Come on, Akane. You should get in on this one as well. One piece from each of us versus two from Youko."

"What?" Akane said, nearly falling out of her chair at this suggestion. "No way. It's not going to happen. You're lucky I don't report you to the Professor as it is. For that, I may just have to do so anyway..." This had really gone too far. Investigation or not, Akane wasn't going to put up with this any longer.

"Oh come on... Who's it hurting?" Midori said. She didn't seem to seriously fear the prospect of Lena finding out about this, but she didn't seem to relish it either. "You and Kazuya get a free show, Youko and I get some fun. Where's the harm?"

_Free show..._ Akane glared at Midori. "You're not exactly my type," she said.

Midori shrugged, but she then gave Akane a grin. "Then we'll find someone your type. Do me this favor, and I'll find someone your type and help you in turn."

Akane's glare weakened just a bit. The wheels in her mind began to turn at Midori's suggestion. This might be a good way to get Kazuya's attention after all... Perhaps she could turn this to her advantage. Besides, she wouldn't be risking anything more than her shoes on this bet.

Akane shook her head. What was she thinking? "No. Not happening."

Midori didn't seem to be fazed by this. She leaned over and whispered in Akane's ear. "Don't think I didn't notice your reaction. Trust me. Kazuya's watching you. Show you're game, just for one bet, and he's yours once we get there."

Akane's cheeks filled with red as Midori pulled away from her. She tried to maintain her glare, but she just didn't have it in her. "...Let me see the legend," she said.

X-X-X

_We danced for the moon, but the moon never knew.  
The moon's companion, however, began to grow jealous.  
The moon never moved, but its companion approached us.  
We had so much love to give, but we never knew it was there before it grew mad.  
The companion grew to envelop the sky, but we didn't notice.  
One girl did see it, but we all ignored her.  
She tried to warn us that it was angry, but we still ignored her.  
The companion's rage grew so great that it burst into flames in the sky.  
It was too late to make amends.  
The companion wasn't listening to us.  
We became its toys, acting out rituals for it against our wills.  
The girl who had first seen it was the only one who'd tried to understand it.  
It demanded a sacrifice from us before we would be released.  
If we didn't make it ourselves, it would be taken from us.  
The price was life, paid twelve times.  
We refused to pay, but the companion forced us to act out for it.  
The girl who had first seen the companion was at the center of it.  
She wrote the story, as she alone could talk to the companion.  
She never took a life, however, and the companion fell ever closer to us.  
We began to fear for our lives, even as we began to lose our minds under the companion's influence.  
We needn't have feared.  
When the companion was about to hit earth, the girl leaped up to it and turned it around.  
The companion still fell, but with its back to us, the needed sacrifice had changed.  
Instead of taking lives for the companion, we could appease it by celebrating life.  
In our exuberance, twelve celebrations of life were made in a single night.  
Content, the companion at last withdrew.  
It faded from our sight, but never from the sight of the one girl who'd seen it all along.  
She told us that it bathed us with its warmth from that day on, even if we didn't know.  
We write this story now, in case the companion should ever grow lonely again.  
Rejoice for it, but never forget that the crimson star hides an obsidian shadow._

X-X-X

Akane narrowed her eyes as she finished reading the legend. "How exactly is this supposed to be a 'slam-dunk'?" she asked.

"It's simple," Midori said. "It's standard sun and moon worship. Every culture has a legend like this, and they're all as old as dirt." There was something off in Midori's voice as she said this, as if she didn't entirely buy this argument herself. Now that Akane had read the legend, she'd realized what Youko had meant about her scientific briefings. Akane hadn't understood the details of Youko's reasoning, but the conclusion was that the moon was likely tied somehow to what had disrupted Fuuka's Shinso.

On top of that, there was the way this legend was written. Someone had been present for the events described. If it were a standard sun- or moon-worship legend, it seemed unlikely that someone would write it as if they'd experienced it. Every other legend they'd gone over had been written as having happened to someone else, or else was completely mundane.

"I don't know," Akane said. "I think I'm with Youko here. This one seems suspicious to me."

Youko chuckled at this. "It looks like you'll be the one having to wager two articles of clothing, Midori. That is, unless you've suddenly lost the nerve."

Midori glared at Akane. She turned her head so that her mouth wouldn't be picked up by the camera and whispered, "Do you want my help or not? Back me up on this or the deal's off."

What was Midori playing at here? Was she trying to lose as a means of seducing Youko? It didn't make much sense to Akane, but then again, little that Midori did made perfect sense. She did tend to get results, though, so Akane didn't want to simply turn down her offer to help with Kazuya. With a sigh, Akane turned to the camera, "I still think you're right, but I'm backing Midori on this. She's my upperclassman, so I owe that to her."

Midori smirked at this. She turned back to Youko and said, "You heard her. You aren't afraid, are you?"

"Not in the slightest," Youko said. She leaned back in her chair and said, "Alright, Kazuya, the chips are down, no further bets can be placed, so tell us: When does this legend trace back to?"

"Um..." Kazuya coughed as he flipped through the book in front of him. A faint tinge of red filled his cheeks as he answered. Let me see... It was mixed in with some religious scriptures, and they were dated to around the year..." Kazuya paused. A bit nervously, he continued, still refusing to look anywhere but at the book, "800 to 900."

Youko grinned widely. "Which would be just perfect for someone who'd been at Fuuka to write it, wouldn't you say, Midori?"

Midori grunted at this, though she didn't seem too upset to have lost. She even smiled at Youko as she stood up and said, "I'll give that one to you." She turned around, facing her back to the camera as she reached back to unclasp her bra.

Just before Midori could remove her bra, though, the sound came from the doorway of Lena loudly clearing her throat. "Would you mind explaining yourself, Midori? Hopefully involving a serious blow to the head or being drugged against your will."

Midori let out a nervous chuckle as she quickly reclasped her bra and ducked down to gather up her clothes. "Well, I thought that you wouldn't be here today, and no one would mind if Youko and I had some fun... It's a victimless crime, I swear!"

"Really?" Lena raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you felt the need to set up a ward to alert you when I neared this room? You knew damn well what you were doing." Akane tried to back out of Lena's line of sight as Lena spoke, and she noticed that either Youko or Kazuya had shut down the connection. She couldn't really blame them, though. "Stop right there, Akane," Lena said, not letting her gaze leave Midori. "Tell me. How did Midori's behavior make you feel? Would you describe her actions as being 'victimless'?"

Akane shot her gaze between Lena and Midori. Lena wasn't looking at her, but Midori was silently pleading with her. Akane weighed her options: She could be honest, in which case Midori would be in huge trouble, and the research trip might even be canceled, depending on how severe the punishment was. Or, she could lie. Midori would owe her a huge favor, and the trip would go on, but Akane would very likely lose face with Lena.

"To tell you the truth..." Akane said, her gaze still shooting back and forth between Lena and Midori. "Midori did seem oblivious to me and Kazuya at first, but she did try to make sure we had no complaints before it got this far."

Lena remained silent for a long while. "Luckily for you, Midori, the school rules don't specifically prohibit this type of behavior. Since class wasn't in session here and the door to this room was locked, I don't think I'll be forced to have you expelled, unless Kazuya turns out to have any complaints about this. However, the rules give me quite a bit of leeway for 'conduct unbecoming an Otome.' Regardless of whether or not Akane or Kazuya have any complaints, it's your role as a Crystal to set a better example than this. I'm confining you to your room at all times aside from class and meals until we leave for Fuuka. I'll be cutting off your television, internet, phone, and messaging privileges for the duration. Any questions?"

Midori grumbled a bit as she got dressed, but all she said in reply to this was a soft, "No, Ma'am."

"You may leave," Lena said. "Return to your room. I'll set up wards soon - if you're out of it at any time other than meals or for class, I'll know." She turned to Akane and said, "Akane, please stay for a moment."

Midori nodded. As she walked past Lena, she shot Akane a quick look and mouthed "thanks."

"Now, Akane," Lena said as she turned to the younger girl. Her expression softened a bit. "Just between you and me: Why didn't you complain about this? I can't bring myself to believe that you wouldn't have any objections."

"Um, well..." Akane said, looking off to the side so she didn't have to meet Lena's gaze. "I didn't want Midori to get expelled... We'd have to cancel the trip if that happened, and I'm not sure she really deserves that."

"I suppose that's fair enough," Lena said, letting out a sigh. "I confess to feeling the same way myself. Midori has a habit of getting herself into trouble, but I've never seen any malice behind her actions. Just promise me you won't try to model yourself after her, alright?"

Akane looked over at Lena and smiled. "I don't think that will be a problem," she said.

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** Just to remind you, the first person to guess the identity of the Crimson Maiden, either here or in the forum thread, will win a request from me. Also, make sure you check out the forum thread for more clues, and to put your heads together with each other. You might just find something you missed, or point out something others missed! And I might drop a few other clues if the thread is active enough. *pokepoke*


	17. Shell Game

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 16: **Shell Game

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

**November 25, 1406**

_Natsuki? It's Shizuru. I know you said you were too busy today to meet with me, but... I really need to see you, if it's at all possible. Please let me know._

_-Shizuru Viola_

_I really do need to work tonight. The nurse won't approve Nao going off campus, and I feel responsible for what happened to her (even if I don't quite understand how it could have been that bad), so I'm covering for her tonight. If you really need to meet... I could probably let you tag along, as long as you're willing to stay out of the way when I say so. And promise not to tell anyone what Nao and I do for a living._

_-Natsuki Kruger_

X-X-X

"Hey there, Shizuru," Natsuki said as her girlfriend opened the door, giving her a soft smile. "How are you doing?"

Shizuru gave a weak smile. "I think I'm alright, but I'm pretty shaken."

Natsuki nodded. "Yukino told me what happened. I really don't blame you."

Shizuru was silent for a moment, but it seemed like her smile became a bit more genuine. "Thank you, Natsuki. I just didn't feel like being alone tonight. If it's too much trouble, though, you don't have to take me along..."

Natsuki narrowed her eyes. Shizuru was usually better at hiding her intentions than this. She must really have been off her game if she was being this transparent. "You're coming, now come on." Natsuki backed away from the doorway and waved for Shizuru to follow her.

"Um, can I at least get my coat first?" Shizuru said.

"Haa... fine," Natsuki said. She gave Shizuru a moment to get her coat and put some shoes on, and then let her girlfriend to the campus garage. They made some idle chitchat along the way, but it wasn't until Natsuki reached her bike that she realized that Shizuru didn't exactly have her own means of transportation. "Um, I guess... Do you want to try sitting behind me?" she asked. "It's not much room, but I think the bike was designed to allow it, so it should be safe..."

Shizuru looked at the bike. From her expression, Natsuki was getting the impression that Shizuru was seriously reconsidering whether or not she wanted to do this.

"Er, I'm sure it'll be safe. There's no way I'll do anything reckless with you on board," Natsuki said.

Shizuru looked over at Natsuki. "If you say so, Natsuki. Just please don't make me regret this choice."

"Don't worry," Natsuki said. She took the helmet from her bike and passed it to Shizuru. "I'll be careful." A glimmer of acceptance passed through Shizuru's eyes, and Natsuki took this as her cue to proceed. She hopped up onto her bike and held out a hand to Shizuru. She helped stabilize her girlfriend as she got onto the bike behind Natsuki. Natsuki's heart nearly jumped up into her throat as Shizuru's body pressed up against hers. "Um... be sure to hold on tight to me..." she said. It was for Shizuru's safety, and she most certainly did _not_ have any ulterior motive for that request. Not at all.

X-X-X

"Natsuki...? Are you alright?" Shizuru asked as Natsuki chained her motorcycle up to the fence.

"I'm fine!" Natsuki coughed, trying to regain her composure. She'd kept her back to Shizuru to try to get rid of the blush that had invaded her cheeks, but was still a bit on edge. "I'm sorry. I'm fine, Shizuru." Shizuru was silent in response to this. In retrospect, Natsuki probably should have taken that as a warning, but she was still a bit off her game. As such, she was caught completely off guard when Shizuru planted a kiss on her cheek as soon as she turned around. In an instant, the blush that Natsuki had fought so hard to suppress returned to her cheeks. "O-oi! Stop that!"

Shizuru smiled softly at this. "Forgive me. I just can't help myself. But if Natsuki truly wishes for me to stop, I shall try."

Natsuki growled softly at this. "Don't think you'll trick me that easily! You just want me to protest not to stop and embarrass myself further."

"Ara? Natsuki certainly has a vivid imagination," Shizuru said. She turned away from Natsuki and began strolling toward a nearby restaurant, leaving the other girl fuming behind her.

Natsuki closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe. This hadn't been a good idea. Shizuru was treating this just like a date, but Natsuki had work she needed to get done. "Shizuru, please wait," she said.

Shizuru paused in her step and slowly turned around. "Yes?"

"I... I really do need to work tonight. What happened with Nao is my fault. I think. So I need to make it up to her. Probably," Natsuki shook her head again to try to get rid of the effect Shizuru was having on her. "What I mean is, it's hard to focus when you're like this, and that could get me in serious trouble. It's dangerous here. If I let down my guard at the wrong time, I could get seriously hurt. Or you could get hurt. I don't know what I was thinking... It's just too dangerous. I'm sorry."

Natsuki buried her gaze in the ground as she spoke. Shizuru remained silent for a few moments, but she began to step toward Natsuki. "I'm sorry, Natsuki. Is your job really that dangerous? I didn't know..."

"It can be," Natsuki said. She hadn't really talked about her job with Shizuru that much. All she'd mentioned was that she helped out with law enforcement, but she hadn't gone into details. "Mostly, I just try to catch small-time criminals. If you know what to look for, it's easy enough to find, and it's not too dangerous. Just petty thieves, muggers, scammers, and the occasional vandal. But it can occasionally get worse than that, and I have to be ready."

Shizuru was silent again for a bit. "Natsuki is certainly taking on quite a bit. I wish you'd told me earlier that your job was so dangerous... although I suppose I understand why you didn't." Natsuki looked up at Shizuru, noticing that the other girl was giving her a soft, understanding smile. "I suppose I can just hang out in a restaurant while you work. They shouldn't mind if I buy enough drinks to last the night."

Natsuki shook her head. "No, I'm not going to make you do that. Just promise to behave yourself, and stay out the way if necessary."

Shizuru nodded. "I promise."

_We'll see how long that lasts,_ Natsuki thought to herself. She could deal with problems as they arose, though.

X-X-X

Natsuki almost couldn't believe it, but Shizuru actually got better, not worse, with her teasing as the night when on. Even when she did slip up, Natsuki was better able to focus. Perhaps it was her work that was causing this, but as Natsuki thought about it, something like this had happened on some of their other dates. When they'd come to Windbloom for a date the prior week, Shizuru's teasing seemed to lighten up as the night went on, although it never quite went away entirely. Perhaps Shizuru just needed to get her fix, and after that point, it was just for fun.

Whatever the reason was, Natsuki was grateful. She was also grateful that this was shaping up to be an easy night. She might not get any more than her base pay - well, Nao wouldn't get any more - but it meant that she didn't have to worry about Shizuru. Even the tempting target of two girls walking the streets at night didn't seem to lure anyone out, though they did eventually stumble upon something that Natsuki could use to make a bit of extra money.

"Turn into this alley with me for a moment," Natsuki whispered. Shizuru obeyed without saying a word, and it didn't occur to Natsuki until after they were in the alley that she might have inadvertently scared Shizuru. "Don't worry, it's nothing threatening," Natsuki said, while she scanned the alley for any potential dangers.

Shizuru nodded, looking around a bit nervously. "What is it, Natsuki?"

"I spotted a scammer up ahead," Natsuki said. She didn't make eye contact with Shizuru as she said this, as she was being a bit overcautious watching for threats right now. "He runs a supposed betting game, but it's all a scam. It's legal to run, but not cheat. Cheating is hard to prove, though, but I have a few ways. Problem is, he knows my face, so I can't catch him cheating. You might be able to help me out here, however."

"...Is that safe?" Shizuru asked, a bit nervously.

Natsuki smiled. "Don't worry. You don't have to help if you don't want to. But it's perfectly safe - this guy's a scammer, not a mugger. He does have a backup plan, though, if someone does pull one over on him. One of his shills will try to pickpocket the money away from the winner as they leave, but they'd never risk attacking anyone."

Shizuru looked off in the direction of the scammer, even though she couldn't see him from this alley. "You really do this for work?"

"...I have to do something, and it's more tolerable than any other choice I had," Natsuki said. "I really don't mind it. And I've even got a badge and radio in case things go bad, though I'm supposed to do everything on my own unless calling in the real cops is unavoidable."

"Hmm. I suppose I shouldn't ask questions about the city's motivation, as long as it's supplying you with a job, but I do wonder... I suppose it's cheaper for them to do things this way, no?" Shizuru said, looking back at Natsuki.

Natsuki nodded. "They mostly hire ex-criminals who are already comfortable on the streets and who want to turn a new leaf. As for me..." Natsuki chuckled. "Pure dumb luck. The wrong guy tried to mug me while the right guy was watching. So you don't have to worry with me around. I can take of both of us, no problem."

This seemed to reassure Shizuru a bit. She nodded and said, "Very well then. So, how does this work?"

Natsuki smiled. "This guy plays a shell game. He places a bean underneath one of three bottlecaps, then shuffles them around and asks the mark - that's the person playing the game - to bet on which one the bean is under. He moves them slow enough that it looks easy to win, and you'll usually see someone playing it when you get there, winning a few, maybe losing by making a dumb choice, but it's all a scam.

"The catch is, when you're asked to pick a bottlecap, the shell isn't under any of them. The scammer got rid of it at some point during the shuffling, and he'll put it back in one that you didn't pick. Basically, as soon as you choose to play, and you follow his rules, you've already lost. As far as I've figured out, the only way to win is to switch it all around on him - pick up any two cups and say, 'It's not under these two.' He'll be forced to place the bean under the third cup, or perhaps admit it's a scam. You'll win the bet, but he'll close up shop, and one of his shills will try to pickpocket you once you leave. My hope is that it'll come to that point, and I can catch the shill for theft, which is worth more - in jailtime for him and reward cash for me - than cheating at the scam."

Shizuru's eyes lit up as she listened to Natsuki's plan. "Hmm, that's quite clever..." she said. She paused for a moment as she thought it over. "Both the scam and your response to it, I mean. I'm glad that I won't have to fall for it. I do hope Natsuki herself hasn't fallen victim to a scam such as this, though."

"Pssh, don't worry about me," Natsuki said. "I've seen it all. I'm fine."

Shizuru raised an eyebrow. "But what if someone were to come up with something new? Or if they were to cloak an old scam in different wrappings? Would you still be able to pick it out then?"

Natsuki couldn't help it. She let out a laugh at this. "You're right. The best mark is the one who believes she can't be fooled. I'll try to be a bit more cautious."

"That's all I ask," Shizuru said. After a bit more planning, and some tips from Natsuki on how to appear to be a normal mark, the plan was ready to be put into action. With a final wish of luck, Shizuru headed off.

Natsuki found a shadowed spot from which she could watch Shizuru as the other girl went to take her chances with the scammer. The sun was beginning to get low, so there were a few good spots around. Even so, there was always a chance a lookout might spot her and they'd close up the game. However, the hope was that he wouldn't recognize her in the dim light. To aid in this illusion, Natsuki had adjusted her hair style, brushing her hair over her shoulder, she was holding Shizuru's purse, and she was pretending to smoke a cigarette.

Just in case something went wrong, Natsuki had given Shizuru $20 of her own money to bet with. It was always possible that the scammer might change his game, though Natsuki didn't see why he might take the risk of actually placing the bean under any of the bottlecaps. But she wasn't going to ask Shizuru to risk her own money on that assumption. And if one of the shills did try to pickpocket Shizuru afterward, she wouldn't have her purse on her to risk losing it.

As Shizuru approached the scammer, a couple of other "players" - almost certainly shills - closed in behind her, cutting off Natsuki's view of Shizuru. It was an intimidation tactic, to try and make it a bit harder for the mark to back out. Natsuki probably should have seen this coming, but this was the first time this scammer had used more than one shill. He was stepping up his game. Perhaps she'd have to rework her plan. Getting just one of the shills for attempted theft would be nice, but that was only one out of three - or possibly more - people who were participating in this.

Natsuki went over her options. With the men blocking off her view of Shizuru, they'd also block off the scammer's view of Natsuki if she chose to approach. If she was quick, she might be able to get there by the time Shizuru made her choice, then flip the third cup and prove that the dealer was cheating. Perhaps some taunts would get one or both of the shills to attempt something stupid, which she could get them for as well. Problem was, that put herself and Shizuru at a risk of violence. They probably wouldn't be stupid enough to carry a gun, but a knife wasn't impossible. With three of them and one of her, Natsuki couldn't rule out any possible risk to Shizuru. If she wanted to bring them all down, she had to find another way.

Whatever she did, she had to act quickly if she wanted to improve upon the plan she'd given Shizuru. Natsuki began to walk toward the site of the game, as fast as she could without seeming suspicious. She varied the pace of her steps a bit as she walked, hoping that the lack of rhythm would help decrease the odds that someone would identify the sounds of her footsteps as such. As she came into sight of the game, Natsuki saw that the shells had already stopped moving, and the dealer and Shizuru had placed down their money. Shizuru was currently pretending to think over her choice, moving a hand over the shells.

Natsuki had to think of a way to get one over on them, and quickly. The trick to any scam wasn't trying to beat the mark, it was getting the mark to accept the basic premise that you laid before them. She wouldn't be able to fool the scammer, and one of his shills would likely recognize Natsuki as well, but the new guy was a possibility. She walked up behind him, making her footsteps just loud enough to hear, and tapped on his shoulder. "Hey, this game legit?" she said in a low voice.

The shill looked back at her. "Tch, don't fall for it," he whispered. "The dealer cheats, but he's got a tell. The last cup he touches when shuffling them always wins. Lemme show ya after this chick's done."

"I believe..." Shizuru said, seemingly oblivious to Natsuki's presence behind her, "That the bean is..." she quickly reached for two caps, "not in these two," and she flipped them over, revealing that they were in fact empty. Natsuki casually backed away behind the shill so the dealer couldn't get a look at her face, but this also meant that she couldn't see his reaction. He was most likely staring daggers at Shizuru at this moment, but he was a good actor.

"Three cheers for the lucky lady!" he said. "You sure do know how to play, don't ya?"

Shizuru chuckled and took her money from the table, getting ready to walk away, but she spotted Natsuki as she did so Natsuki gave Shizuru a quick gesture to keep silent and not move far away, while the shill in front of her pushed pass and began to play the game, thinking he was demonstrating the "cheat" to Natsuki.

Natsuki kept herself behind the shill who was playing the game, keeping an eye on Shizuru in case the other shill went after her. After he'd won a couple times with his "cheat," Natsuki waited until he'd called for another game, then stepped around him before it could start and said, "Come on, give me a turn with this one."

The scammer blinked as he looked at Natsuki's face. Although he'd already begun to shuffle the bottlecaps, he quickly picked them all up and pocketed them, saying, "Sorry Miss, but my time here's up. Got another engagement to get to."

"Really?" Natsuki said. "This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that you're running a rigged game and don't want to get caught, could it?" She cracked a smile. "You didn't seem to have a problem running another game when it was your friend here playing."

"Just saw the sun's position when I looked up," he said. He was slick indeed. He knew that Natsuki didn't have any real evidence on him; he just had to get away from her.

Natsuki wasn't paying attention to the scammer, though. She was listening to the footsteps behind her. One set, rather fast, was most likely an uninvolved bystander. The other, more slow set, would be one of the shills moving toward Shizuru so he could slip the money out of her pocket. Natsuki shifted her position slightly, making sure that the dealer had a clear view of Shizuru and the shill who was about to try and rob her.

"Perhaps you're telling the truth," Natsuki said. She waited for just the right moment before she continued, "or perhaps the game isn't the point at all. Of course you know I'm with the cops. And so the only reason you wouldn't report an attempted theft to me..." Natsuki spun around and grasped the thieving shill's wrist with her hand, just at the moment that it had slipped into Shizuru's pocket, "would be if you were complicit in it. And don't tell me you didn't notice it. This guy's so inept, I could hear his hand moving. You saw it, and I know you saw it."

"Not to mention," a voice said from off to Natsuki's right, "the knife your other friend is preparing to draw. I do believe that constitutes a threat of violence, doesn't it, Kruger?"

Natsuki glanced over at the source of the voice to see Nao grinning back at her. Of course the nurse wouldn't have been able to keep her on campus, and this was her usual territory. Nao was quick to disarm the shill with a small, almost unnoticeable spell, and she quickly bound his hands behind his back with some rope that she conjured up. Thankfully, she was careful enough to keep all the magic behind his back so he didn't raise any questions later.

"A little reckless there, weren't we?" Nao said. Her statement was ambiguous, but the look she gave Natsuki made it clear that she was talking to her.

"Pssh. You just got to him first," Natsuki said. She twisted the arm of the shill she was currently holding and brought his wrist behind his back. "Now make this easy or I'll make it hard," she told him as she took out a length of rope from her pocket. "Resisting arrest isn't worth it, trust me. I believe your friend here can attest to that from our last altercation."

X-X-X

"Should have known you'd try to edge in on my territory while I was out..." Nao muttered as she followed Natsuki and Shizuru out of the police station. "I'll give you a third of the reward from this one, but only if you butt out of my zone."

Natsuki paused in her step. She turned around and shot Nao a deadly glare. She'd in fact been planning to let Nao have it all, as she still felt guilty about getting her hurt the previous day, but this was just insulting. "How the fuck is that fair? I got evidence on two of them, and I would have gotten the third if you hadn't stepped in."

"You would have gotten a knife in the back if I hadn't stepped in!" Nao said, stepping toward Natsuki. "You should be thanking me, not trying to screw me out of my pay."

"I had it under control," Natsuki said, taking a step toward Nao and using her height advantage to look down at the other girl. "I've been in worse and come out without a scratch."

"Pff. Yeah. You looked real prepared to let yourself get stabbed. Great plan. What was the next step, let them mug your girlfriend?"

"I can show you the next step if you want, but trust me, you don't."

Natsuki felt the gently pressure of Shizuru's hand coming to a rest on her shoulder. "Nao, Natsuki told me earlier today that she was planning to let you have all that she earned today. I think it might be best if we simply drop this matter. I thank you for helping, though I do trust that Natsuki could have handled it on her own had you not been there."

Shizuru's presence helped Natsuki calm down, and the stern gaze Shizuru was giving Nao seemed to have a similar, if somewhat weaker, effect. After a few moments, Nao grunted and turned away. She began to walk off toward the Rorschach pub, which was just a couple blocks away from the police station. "I don't need your charity. Take a third of the reward and be glad you got that much."

"Pssh. Fine," Natsuki said. She began to follow Nao toward the pub, though she hung back a bit so she could talk with Shizuru without being overheard. Once she was sure Nao was out of earshot, she said, "Sorry about, Shizuru."

Shizuru was silent for a moment. "It's alright, Natsuki," she said after a bit, "but you should be careful not to let her antagonize you so much. You might end up doing something unwise."

"Yeah, I know..." Natsuki said. She really couldn't say why Nao got on her nerves so much, and the fact that this effect seemed to be mutual just made it worse. "Would you believe," Natsuki said, "a friend of mine actually thought that Nao might have a crush on me."

Shizuru didn't respond to this at first. "You know, some people do have trouble expressing their feelings. But if this is the case with Nao, then I might have to come to the conclusion that she similarly has feelings for half of the school."

Natsuki burst out into laughter at this, though she stifled it when Nao looked back to see what was up. After a moment to let Nao's suspicion wane, Natsuki said, "Apparently, Mikoto noticed that Nao spent a lot of time staring at the table I was sitting at in the library. Though given what I know of her know, I suppose it's more likely she was trying to burn holes in the back of my head."

"Perhaps," Shizuru said, her voice having developed a bit of a lilt. "Or perhaps she has a crush on someone else at that table. I do suspect that Nao is capable of human emotions, after all."

"Hrm. Maybe. I'll believe it when I see it," Natsuki said. They were nearing the pub by this point, so she let Shizuru inside, and she and Shizuru joined Nao in a booth. At the other side of it was a man, his features mostly obscured beneath his hat.

"Very impressive, Miss Zhang," the man said. "But I do hope you aren't attempting to convince me that you pulled this off on your own, particularly after what happened earlier this week..."

"Shut it, Yamada," Nao said, glaring at him. Natsuki was intrigued at this story. Had Nao fallen for one of these scams? That was a story she needed to hear. Perhaps she could convince Yamada to tell it to her sometime later. "Kruger got the scammer and the thief, I got the guy with the knife. Two-thirds for me, one for her."

Yamada raised an eyebrow. "It sounds to me as if it should be the other way around."

"It's fine," Natsuki said. "That includes a payment to get her to shut up around me."

"Very well, I'll leave it to you then," Yamada said. He took out his wallet and doled out the reward money to Natsuki and Nao. Nao left the restaurant even before he'd gotten to giving Natsuki her share, but Natsuki remained around long enough to thank him for it. "If you wouldn't mind, Miss Kruger, I have a possible job for you."

"Oh?" Natsuki said. She'd just been about to get up, but she sat back down, and motioned for Shizuru to join her in the booth. "What is it?"

"It's something that requires an amount of discretion," Yamada said, looking over at Shizuru. "Are you quite certain that this friend of yours can be trusted?"

"Of course," Natsuki said, without even thinking about it. "I trust her completely." Out of the corner of her eye, Natsuki could see Shizuru's lip curling into a smile, though Shizuru quickly turned away. and brought a hand up to cover her face. Was she blushing, perhaps? _Ugh, no fair... she just has to hide it the one time I make her blush._

"Very well," Yamada said. He reached down below the table and pulled up a sealed envelope. "This is a simple task, but I can't afford the risk that any information might leak. I require you to relay a message to a teacher at Garderobe, a Miss Yukariko Steinberg. I will be contacting her on a public channel tomorrow to confirm that she's received it and that the envelope is unopened and bears the signature of Sakomizu Cardinal across the seal, so do not think of inspecting it yourself. If I find that you have looked at it, or if you have managed to lose it, you will find yourself in a great deal of trouble, I assure you."

Natsuki raised an eyebrow at this. "Sheesh. You can't just deliver it yourself?"

"I would never be allowed on the premises of Garderobe, and with quite good reason," Yamada said. He glanced over at Shizuru and quickly added, "It's all forged as a cover, I assure you, my dear, but they won't know that. Lord Cardinal cannot enter the campus, or even send one of his own servants there, without attracting undue attention, which is exactly what we wish to avoid here. If this news got out, there would be a great deal of unrest within Windbloom, but we hope that Miss Steinberg will help us resolve the problem before it reaches that point."

"Hrm. Fine, I'll do it. What's the pay?" Natsuki said.

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Whether it seems like it or not, we're actually getting close to a climax in the story. The mystery might even be solved – at least, the more mundane part – rather soon. I'll give you a final warning the chapter before it happens, so you can get any final guesses in, but we aren't quite there yet.


	18. First Blood

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 17:** First Blood

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

**November 26, 1406**

Irina seemed to be an odd mix of excited and devious as she joined the group in the library. "This Saturday, the Crimson Maiden will be exposed!" she declared, grinning triumphantly. She coughed as she attracted a bit too much attention from other denizens of the library, then sat down and tried not to look too suspicious.

"You've figured it out?" Mai said, her eyes widening. "Do tell! Who is it?"

"Well, no," Irina said. "I haven't figured it out. I've figured out how to figure it out. It's simple, really." She kept grinning as the other girls looked at her. She seemed to be waiting for someone to prod her, but she eventually let out a sigh when this didn't happen. "Fine. I'll explain. From what Yukino's told us about glamours, we've been able to narrow down the suspect list to Shizuru, Haruka, Midori, Nao, and, well, Mai." Irina shot Mai an apologetic glance. "And from Yukino's battle with the Maiden, we've been able to rule out Haruka, Shizuru, and Mai, who all have people who can account for their presence elsewhere during the battle. This leaves Midori and Nao. We know that Midori will be leaving for the other side of the world this weekend, so if the Maiden does anything in that time, then we know it's Nao."

Natsuki raised an eyebrow. "But if she doesn't do anything, we can't really say anything about her. Even if it is Nao, I'd suspect she wouldn't do anything in that time, either," Natsuki said, lowering her voice, "especially since you just shouted out that you're going to expose her. You've pretty much guaranteed that she'll lay low, unless you got lucky enough that Nao didn't quite hear you."

"Pfft, I've got that covered," Irina said, her grin returning. "That's when we use the Maiden's own actions against her. She seemed to be quite smitten with Mai, and she left an open duel invitation. So all Mai has to do is accept it. Then Nao - if it is her - will have no choice but to show up. If she ignores it, we'll be able to spot it on the school's dueling records. Right now, both Nao and Midori have a big fat zero duels they defaulted out of. If Mai accepts the challenge, and the Maiden fails to respond, we simply have to check the records after they've been updated to see which of them has defaulted out of it. That's our culprit. The only question remaining is what to do with her..."

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Mai said. "That is _not_ the only question remaining. I, for one, am wondering how exactly I got volunteered to fight the Maiden."

Irina stared at Mai, a bit confused as to why this was a question. "You have an open challenge from the Maiden. And it's not like you minded losing last time, so even if something does go wrong, it's not the end of the world," Irina said. She then muttered, "Which it very well might be if I asked Natsuki to accept her challenge from the Maiden."

Mai's face filled with red. "No. It's not going to happen."

Natsuki could certainly understand Mai's reaction. She was half tempted to snap at Irina for even considering asking her to accept the Maiden's challenge. "Leave it, Irina. We'll figure out something else."

Irina rolled her eyes. "Sheesh... It's a wonder the Maiden ever convinced you to fight her in the first place..." Mai was silent for a long minute as she stared at Irina. "...What?" Irina asked at last.

"...It is a wonder," Mai said. She shook her head, as if trying to dislodge a memory from the recesses of her mind. "I... I fought her because I'd convinced myself that the Maiden had to be Anh Lu, who was flirting with me around that time. I... had a bit of a crush on her. I wanted her to be my first," Mai seemed embarrassed as she said this, but she forced the words out. "But even when I failed to dispel the Maiden's glamour, and I knew it wasn't Anh... why didn't I refuse? I should have backed out. I'd back out if I fought her today."

The table was silent. Nobody really knew Mai's mind better than she did, so Natsuki didn't really see what there was to say. Irina, on the other hand, seemed to have another idea. "Maybe it was pride? You didn't want to lose face by backing out?"

Mai shook her head. "No... that didn't cross my mind. I didn't even consider backing out. I was... too excited to consider the prospect. There's just something about the Maiden that makes it impossible to resist her. Is there even any magic that can do that?"

"No," Yukino said. "There isn't. It's a fundamental rule. It's possible to alter a person's perceptions, their experiences, their memory, and even override their actions. But you can't change their will. The soul is simply inviolable. Magic can't touch it. Trust me, I've read up on some pretty evil witches in the past, and even they couldn't mess with someone's will. She has to be doing it naturally."

"Or it's something other than magic..." Akane said, almost too softly to be heard.

From the other end of the table from Akane, Sara said, "What was that, Akane? I couldn't hear you."

"Er, I'm just saying..." Akane said, "I've been reading a lot of legends lately, and reports on what happened in Fuuka. People's wills were definitely being affected there. Something made people start to go insane... but not like this. It was more... violently insane. So it is possible. I just don't know how. But I think Mai's right. Something else is going on here. Midori and I both kinda went... lustfully insane yesterday. Midori was probably closer to the edge than I was, which was why she succumbed so quickly, but I still can't figure out how my own mind was working then. I wasn't myself. I..."

Mai placed a hand on Akane's shoulder, steadying the girl. "It's alright. I'm going to go talk to Miss Maria about that incident with the spirit possessing Shizuru. I'll mention this to her as well - I'll leave your name out. If anyone can figure out what's going here, she can. But this is just beyond us. Let's just worry about the Crimson Maiden, and try to rein ourselves in otherwise, alright?"

Akane nodded slowly. "Yeah... I just don't know how I'll explain this..."

Mai turned back to Irina. "I'll do it. I know what I'm facing this time, so I can beat it, even if we do turn out to be wrong. Plus, I can always fall back on Yukino's trick; if you don't hear from me, assume something's wrong and bring in the faculty. Otherwise, I'll deal with the Maiden myself. We have a score to settle."

X-X-X

"Mai, are you sure about this?" Natsuki said, after she'd pulled Mai aside near the end of lunch hour. "What if we're wrong about this? Are you sure you want to risk that?"

Mai glanced back toward the table where they'd been talking, then back at Natsuki. In a low voice, she said, "We know that the Maiden didn't actually do anything with Yukino. Even if something goes wrong, she should honor my request to back out."

Natsuki grunted at this. "I still think it isn't worth the risk. Something's been bothering me about all of this. I just can't shake the feeling that we're missing something."

"We're missing a lot of things," Mai said. "We still haven't figured out that 'Sisterhood of the Crimson Flame' message, or what exactly the Maiden was doing with Yukino, or... well, almost anything about that whole event with Yukino. But we do know who it can't be, and that only leaves a couple people."

"That's just it," Natsuki said. "Our only solid evidence is based on eliminating suspects. We could have easily eliminated someone we shouldn't have. And if that's the case, you'll be setting yourself up for a loss."

Mai was silent for a bit, then she let out a sigh. "Yeah, I know. But I'm sick of all this, and maybe I'm feeling a bit pissed off at her now. I'm willing to risk a loss - if nothing else, I have Yukino's trick to fall back on, if she refuses to let me back out."

"Hrm." Natsuki said. She still didn't like this. It felt too much like Mai was walking into a trap.

"I'll tell you what, Natsuki," Mai said. "The next couple of days, we can go over every possible loophole, to make sure we haven't made any mistakes. If we find any problems, then I simply won't challenge the Maiden. Otherwise, I'm taking her down. Alright?"

"Alright," Natsuki said, already beginning to make a mental list of what she had to confirm.

X-X-X

Mai hesitated as she was approached Miss Maria's office. She hadn't done anything wrong here, but there was always a bit of a risk when talking to Miss Maria. She'd have to be careful not to let anything slip about what exactly she'd done with the Crimson Maiden. It wasn't technically against any school rules, but she certainly didn't want to find herself on Miss Maria's bad side. Even if Miss Maria couldn't punish her for this, she'd find something else sooner or later to get Mai with.

There was no use delaying this, though. Mai took the final steps to get out in front of the doorway, and she reached around to knock on the open door. "Miss Maria?"

Miss Maria looked up, and she gave Mai a business-like smile. "Miss Tokiha. What may I do for you?"

Mai stepped forward into the room. "There's been an... incident that I feel you need to know about." Mai turned around, looking at the door. "Um, can we discuss this in private?"

"If you wish," Miss Maria said, motioning to the door with her head. Mai turned to close the door while Miss Maria put away some of the papers she'd been working on. "Now, please tell me what happened."

"Well, it started with a possession," Mai said. She took a seat across from Miss Maria's desk. "A friend of a friend was practicing her Divination, when she was suddenly possessed by a spirit. The spirit warned that a dark force was watching her, and that she had to stop this line of questioning immediately. I contacted this spirit myself later, in my own Divination practice, but she couldn't tell me much more about what this dark force or whatever is. She only told me that F - Shinso's spirit - might know something about it."

"A 'dark force'?" Miss Maria said, raising an eyebrow. "This would be concerning indeed." Miss Maria was silent for a time. She cradled her chin in her hands as she thought about this. "I would appreciate if you not spread word about this, Miss Tokiha, but unfortunately something like this isn't unexpected. A large concentration of magic, such as we have here in Garderobe, has a tendency to draw many spirits to it, and not all of them are friendly. When this school was proposed, some of us were worried that it might have this effect, and so certain safeguards were put into place. These safeguards are likely what the spirit you discussed was referring to - our Shinso has certain mechanisms for dealing with malign spirits. They cannot be used unless F is aware of the spirit, however, so I will ensure that this is the case."

Mai nodded. "Alright, thank you."

"Now," Miss Maria said. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Well... just one more thing," Mai said. She had to be careful here, so she took a moment to choose her words. "Is it at all possible for spirits to alter someone's mind somehow?"

Miss Maria furrowed her brow. "Not that I am aware of, no. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just..." Mai looked downward as she tried to figure out the best way to say this without actually lying. "A friend and I both found ourselves making some very uncharacteristic choices not long ago. For the life of me, I can't figure out how I could have made a few decisions..."

Miss Maria raised an eyebrow at this. "Might I remind you, Miss Tokiha, that minors are banned from consuming alcoholic beverages, both on campus and in Windbloom. If you are trying to look for an excuse for exercising poor judgment, you will find no help from me."

"Wha-? No! That's not it!" Mai said, her eyes widening. "I wasn't drunk at all, or on anything else!"

"Hrm," Miss Maria said, though she didn't seem to entirely believe Mai. "If that is the case, then I would recommend you not look outside yourself for reasons behind your poor judgment. You cannot change your decisions in the past, but you can learn to do better in the future. For your own sake, ensure you do so."

"Er, right," Mai said. She pushed herself up from her chair and made for the door. "Um, thanks, Miss Maria," she said as she opened the office door.

"Of course, Miss Tokiha," Miss Maria said, just before Mai got out the door. "And do not let me find you with a single drop of alcohol in your body if you wish to remain enrolled here." She gave Mai a smile as she said this. "Thank you, and good day, Miss Tokiha."

X-X-X

_Miss Steinberg,_

I know this message comes to you through an unusual route, but I plead you not disregard it. The stability of Windbloom may rely on your help and discretion in this matter.

You will receive a call to confirm receipt of this message later tonight. Once I have confirmed that you have it and agree to help, proceed to the royal palace and present this letter and your identification to the guard at the gate. He will direct you to Lord Cardinal, who will explain what we require of you.

Thank you.

The letter bore the seal of Lord Sakomizu Cardinal, and his personal signature. Yukariko had to cast a Divination to confirm that it was indeed his original signature, as she considered it much more likely that Natsuki had somehow been fooled into delivering this letter in his name than that Yukariko would receive a letter from the regent himself. As it turned out, the letter wasn't written by the regent, but the signature was indeed his, and it had been signed to the paper after the message was written.

This was certainly unusual. Miss Maria usually acted as Garderobe's representative in national matters, and Lena Sayers had more recently become a symbol of Windbloom's strength. But if discretion were required here, Yukariko supposed that it made sense that she would be asked for help. Although she couldn't match Lena's raw ability or Maria's experience, she did have a decent amount of both, and she wasn't nearly as well-known as either of them.

Once Yukariko had arrived at the palace, she ended up having to wait a bit before Lord Cardinal could meet her, but she was in fact surprised by how little she did have to wait. He was obviously prioritizing this highly, whatever it was.

"Miss Steinberg," Lord Cardinal said as he entered the room where Yukariko had been directed to wait. "Thank you for coming on such short notice."

"Of course," Yukariko said. She stood up and gave a polite bow as the regent approached her. "What may I do to assist you?"

"I will explain soon," Lord Cardinal said. He turned toward the hallway he'd come from, saying, "Please come with me. We shall find someplace more private to converse."

Lord Cardinal led Yukariko through the palace. At any other time, Yukariko might have appreciated the chance to see the private chambers, which tours usually didn't pass through, but at the moment, she was concerned about Lord Cardinal's tone. Something was seriously wrong. At last, Lord Cardinal entered a room and directed Yukariko to a seat in it. Unlike most of the palace, this room was more brightly-colored, and it actually had a visible semblance of modern technology in it. This was most likely the Princess' wing of the palace, then.

"You may leave us," Lord Cardinal said to his guards. The two of them nodded, and they exited the room. Once the door had closed behind them, he turned to Yukariko and said, "The issue today concerns the Princess. Lately, she has been exhibiting some odd behavior. For no apparent reason, one day a few weeks ago, she suddenly began became vastly more mature. Normally, I would have been pleased that she was taking her duties more seriously, but the suddenness and severity of the change worried me.

"I talked to the Princess about it, and her response worried me even more. She told me that she had become aware of a great threat to the kingdom. When I asked how, she told me that her past self had come to warn her of this." Lord Cardinal paused, and he let out a bit of a sigh. "I had some of my best researchers look into the matter, but although they have been able to present me with several likely examples of reincarnation, none have been able to find any example where a past incarnation communicated with the person's present incarnation. My fear is that the Princess has become possessed by some spirit which has tricked her into believing it is her past self, but I have been unable to convince her of this. I know that you are skilled with Divination, and so it is my hope that you might be able to determine the truth of this matter, and if necessary, exorcize this spirit. Needless to say, this must all be kept quiet. If word were to get out that the Princess were possessed - and mere weeks before her coronation at that - you can imagine the unrest that would arise within the kingdom."

Yukariko nodded slowly as she took this in. "I will do whatever I can to help, Lord Cardinal. You may place your faith in me."

X-X-X

Natsuki let out a sigh as she got back into her room and collapsed to her bed. Out of habit, she counted the money she'd made tonight. $50 - Just her hourly pay this time, and not even her usual amount of hours at that. She'd had to use up a bit over an hour tracking down a couple people and then grilling them, but she'd gotten the information she needed.

"Ugh..." Natsuki found her eyes drifting closed, but she couldn't go to sleep just yet. She at least needed to take a shower before she went to sleep, but she also wanted to get this report out for Mai. She wasn't done quite yet, but she'd gotten all of the low-hanging fruit, at least.

Forcing herself to roll off of the bed, Natsuki sat down at her desk and wrote out a note.

_Natsuki here. Wanted to double-check some of the assumptions we've made. Here's a summary of what I've found:_

Assumption #1: Mechanics of illusions. (Sorry Yukino, have to check)

I checked through the library and talked to Miss Steinberg about this one, and it all checks out. You simply can't get around the need to keep some true aspect of the person visible with a glamour.

Assumption #2: Alibis

We think that the Crimson Maiden probably used a memory charm on Yukino to convince her to accept the duel, so we can't rule out a memory charm also being used to cement her alibi. Breaking it down into the three suspects that had alibis:

Haruka: She was at a meeting of the disciplinary committee, with many other students there, and the _paperwork confirms her presence. It's remotely possible she could have used a memory charm on all of them, but it seems unlikely. Since it was on campus, it's also possible she used an illusion to make it look like she was present, though it would have to be pretty elaborate. I can't really rule this all out, but it seems pretty unlikely._

Mai: She was at work in Windbloom. I checked with a coworker of hers, who confirms that she was there. The coworker also said she hadn't been to Garderobe in the past week, so there's no chance of a charm being used on her to think Mai was there. Another coworker confirmed this story. Mai's completely in the clear.

Shizuru: I checked with the waitress at the restaurant we went to, and she remembers us. She was even able to get a copy of the receipt for our visit. As with Mai's coworker, the waitress hadn't been to Garderobe, so she's in the clear.

On the chance you think I'm affected by a charm right now, feel free to check this all out for yourself.

Assumption #3: The Maiden is a Pearl or Crystal student

I haven't completely tested this one yet, and I'm not sure how quite yet. We've been assuming that the Maiden couldn't be a Coral, as she seems to powerful, but she also seems too powerful (in her Divination abilities and knowledge of Childs) to be either Midori or Nao. Can't think of any Corals who match the Maiden physically, but there might be some. It could also be a faculty member, though that gets into another whole issue of illegality and immorality, and I also can't think of any that look like the Maiden anyway.

With the news of the dark spirit on campus, I checked to see if a spirit could masquerade as the Maiden. Turns out it can't. Any spirit needs a human to become visible, and even then, it has to follow the same rules as glamours.

Assumption #4: "Sisterhood of the Crimson Flame" is a red herring planted by the Maiden

None of us has been able to find the slightest bit of evidence that any such thing exists. It seems likely that it was part of the memory charm used on Yukino to convince her that Haruka was the Maiden. But on the off-chance that it's real, then perhaps the 'Sisterhood' means that more than one person is acting as the Maiden. I really can't confirm or refute this possibility, unfortunately. Particularly since Yukino's encounter with the Maiden seems a lot different from other encounters.

I'll get back to you if/when I'm able to check anything else. I'm still not convinced we aren't making a false assumption somewhere.

Natsuki sent the message off to the rest of her friends, then trudged toward the bathroom. She was half-asleep as she stripped off for her shower, so she almost didn't notice as a note popped into existence in front of her. She blinked her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, then snatched it from the air.

_Natsuki,_

That was it. Just her name and a comma. It was written in red ink, like the Maiden had used previously, and it had arrived right after Natsuki had stripped off her clothes, also like the Maiden had sent her previous note. But there was no message. Just her name. Natsuki flipped the piece of paper over, looking for something on the back, but there wasn't any writing there either, just a random red splotch, as if someone had spilled ink onto it, or perhaps bled onto it. Natsuki ran her finger over the red splotch, but she couldn't feel anything from it. The magic that sent these notes was pretty specific, so it might have just retained the color on the paper and not the actual substance that had caused it.

Natsuki flipped back to the front of the note, then to the back again. The splotch was a different shade of red from the ink on the front. Perhaps it was blood. Was it a warning? Was the Maiden losing her mind? Had someone attacked her? Had the Maiden attacked someone else?

Whatever was going on, this was worrying. Natsuki scrambled to put her clothes on, and as soon as she was dressed, she took the note and her keys and headed off to Mai's room. Mai was the class head, and she had a master key to the Coral and Pearl dorms for emergencies like just this. Natsuki would have to go to Shizuru to get the Crystal dorms checked, but one thing at a time.

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** Just a few chapters left before the big reveal. If you want to win the contest, make sure to guess in the reviews here or in the forum thread for this fic (link in my profile). And if you're stumped, there are some good ideas and some hints from me in the forum thread. Put your heads together with other people there, and you might be able to figure it out.


	19. Act Three, Scene One

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 18:** Act Three, Scene One

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

Natsuki knocked loudly on Shizuru's door. She listened at it for the sound of footsteps, but she couldn't hear anything. Trying not to panic, Natsuki knocked again and called out, "Shizuru! Are you in there?"

_Okay, stay calm. She could just be asleep. It is rather late. This doesn't have to mean that she's in some sort of trouble..._Natsuki tried to convince herself of this, but it wasn't working. One more try, and then she'd find a faculty member to get them to check on Shizuru. Natsuki pounded on the door and called out for Shizuru.

There was a moment of deafening silence, and then Natsuki could hear muffled footsteps from the other side of the door. Natsuki breathed a sigh of relief, though this still didn't help get rid of the sinking feeling in her stomach. The door soon creaked open. "...Natsuki?" Shizuru said from the other side of the doorway. "What's all the noise about?"

Natsuki was barely listening to Shizuru, though. Almost before Shizuru had finished speaking, Natsuki sprung forward and caught her girlfriend in a tight embrace. She held this embrace until the reality of what she was doing dawned on her, and she quickly pulled back, turning her head to the side to hide the blush that was quickly filling her cheeks. "Um, sorry. I got a note... looked like blood on it, but no name..." Natsuki muttered, trying to explain. "Mai's checking Coral and Pearl rooms. Came to get you, but you didn't reply, so I got worried, and..." Natsuki bit her lip to stop the words from spilling out.

After a moment, Natsuki felt a hand come to a rest on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Natsuki. I was asleep when you knocked, apparently quite deeply. At first I thought the knock was coming from inside my dream, even," Shizuru said. She spoke calmly, trying to help reassure Natsuki and get her to focus on the task at hand. "But give me a moment. I'll get my master key and I can start checking on all of the Crystals. You'd probably be best off helping out Mai - I'm sure she'll let you borrow the Coral or Pearl key - we'll get all the rooms checked fastest that way. Send me a note if you find anything."

Natsuki nodded. "Alright. Thanks, Shizuru." Hopefully this was just some sort of mistake. Even a bizarre warning from the Crimson Maiden would be preferable to the emergency scenario, but Natsuki had to make sure.

X-X-X

After a final awkward intrusion into a Coral's room - according to Mai, Natsuki had to check even if there was no response, in case someone was incapacitated - Natsuki was finished with checking all the Coral rooms for anyone in trouble, without any results to show for it. She headed back to the common room, where she'd arranged with Mai to meet. Both Mai and Shizuru were already there, and Natsuki could tell from their expressions that they hadn't found anything amiss either.

"Haa... I'm sorry," Natsuki said, giving a wry grin. "I guess I overreacted to that note."

Mai shook her head. "No, I think you did the right thing. When Miss Maria was briefing me on the responsibilities of being class head, she brought up a case like this as an example of an emergency that would require using the master keys. I'll have to report this to Miss Maria tomorrow, but I'm sure she'll agree with me."

"Hrm," Natsuki said. She fingered the note in her pocket. "What could it be about, then? Just a prank?"

"That would be quite a serious matter if it's the case," Shizuru said, "but I don't think it will be possible to inquire with the sender of the note to find out what her intentions are. After all of this, I sincerely doubt anyone would be willing to take responsibility for it."

"Can we just assume Nao did it?" Natsuki said. "I can't think of anyone else who'd try to pull a prank like this on me." She didn't truly think it was Nao - at least, not unless she was acting as the Crimson Maiden - but Natsuki wanted to at least help cut the tension a bit. Judging by the chuckle that Shizuru gave her in response, it seemed to work.

"I'm afraid not, Natsuki," Shizuru said, smiling softly at Natsuki.

X-X-X

_"You seem distracted," Shizuru's voice said._

_Natsuki opened her eyes. How had Shizuru gotten into her bedroom? But as she blinked and tried to focus, she realized that something seemed a bit off. She was dreaming right now. Rather than get out of bed to greet her dream Shizuru, Natsuki reached out to grab Shizuru's wrist, and she pulled her into bed with her. With a chuckle, Shizuru cuddled up next to Natsuki, and Natsuki wrapped her arms around the image of her girlfriend._

_It was a while before Natsuki said anything, but Shizuru didn't press her. "I was worried today," Natsuki confessed at last. "When I thought Shizuru might have been hurt... I couldn't think straight."_

_"Mm. I know how that feels," Shizuru said. "Though perhaps not quite in the same way. There was a time when I thought I might never see Natsuki - any Natsuki - ever again. Once I found my Natsuki, I swore that I would do whatever it took to make sure we could be together."_

_Natsuki pulled back a bit. She reached a hand up to Shizuru's cheek, brushing a lock of hair away from her face. "If you'd come to see me last night, I probably would have asked you to back off. Having two Shizurus in my life is pretty confusing. I'm really not sure if it counts as cheating or not. But tonight... I just don't think I can bear to ask you to leave."_

_Shizuru's eyes met Natsuki's. "I wouldn't worry, Natsuki. I may have a complicated history, but the only reason I can appear to you at all is because you feel something for Shizuru. If you prefer, you can think of me as a representation of your own feelings, mixed with the memories of a stray spirit."_

_"Is that the truth?" Natsuki said, raising an eyebrow._

_"It's close enough," Shizuru said. "I don't think there are words to describe what it actually is, but that explanation isn't far off."_

_"Hrm," Natsuki said. "Alright. You win. It's not cheating. Besides, Shizuru's done much more with the image of me in her dreams... so she says."_

_"She has?" Shizuru said, her eyes darkening. "It would seem my own Natsuki has some explaining to do."_

_"Wha-? I thought you said it didn't count as cheating?"_

_Shizuru's face immediately softened. "Just kidding," she said. It took a moment for her to process this, but Natsuki soon let out a low growl. Even in her dreams, she couldn't escape the teases. But when Shizuru gave her a pair of big, puppy-dog eyes, Natsuki's growl lost its strength. "Forgive me?" Shizuru said._

_"Haa... fine," Natsuki said. She placed a hand on Shizuru's side and idly trailed her fingers along it. "But you have to help me out."_

_"Of course," Shizuru said. "What can I do?"_

_"I need to figure out who sent this note I got, and why," Natsuki said. "Is there any special spirit thing you can do to figure it out?"_

_"I'm afraid not," Shizuru said. "I'm not native to this universe, so I can't interact with the world the way other spirits can. You're pretty much the only thing here I can connect with."_

_"Hrm, okay," Natsuki said. It was a long shot, but she'd had to ask. "I'll have to figure it out myself then... Why would anyone send a message that was nothing but a drop of blood?"_

_Shizuru was silent for a bit. "People often write obscure messages when they want to make sure only the right person will understand it... Perhaps whoever sent this was worried that someone else might see it?"_

_"Doubtful," Natsuki said. "It arrived when I was... er, well, it wasn't a time when I was likely to have guests," she said, trying not to think about that too much._

_"Perhaps someone was watching when she sent it then?" Shizuru said._

_"Hrm," Natsuki said. She couldn't really rule that out, but she wasn't sure where it got her. "But then, what am I supposed to take from this? What could a drop of blood mean?"_

_Shizuru shook her head slowly. "I'm afraid I don't know..." She was silent for a bit. "Maybe it's not a message. Could it be part of some sort of magic spell? I remember hearing rumors about magic that used blood, but it's been so long... And that's a different universe, in any case."_

_Natsuki furrowed her brow as she thought about this. "I've heard that too, but I don't think it's been done recently. I think it was only before we had Shinso that witches needed to use blood in their spells. And it was a lot more limited back then, I think. But maybe it could still be used for something..."_

_"Hmm..." Shizuru said. After a moment, she let out a sigh. "I don't think I'll be much help here. When you wake up, you'd best do some research on this."_

_Natsuki shook her head. "No, you've been quite helpful. Thanks, Shizuru," she said, giving the other girl a smile._

_Shizuru smiled back. "I'm glad."_

X-X-X

"Final team meeting, commencing..." Irina looked at her watch, most likely waiting for the minute to change. They usually started around the same time, when everyone was done with lunch, but it wasn't as if they had a set minute. "Now! Alright," Irina said, turning to the table. "The mystery is in its death throes. We're into the final act here, where our dear Mai Tokiha will have the honor of unmasking the Crimson Maiden once and for all. But before we get to that, as Natsuki pointed out last night, we still need to handle a few loose ends.

"First," Irina said, shuffling through her notes. "We need to make sure we aren't forgetting someone who might be able to pull of the glamour. In particular, we haven't been looking at either Corals or faculty members. Corals are probably not powerful enough to pull it off, but power seems to be an issue for any of our suspects, so we might as well check. Let's make a list. What Corals do we know who have red hair, the Maiden's large bust, or red eyes?"

There was a moment of silence as the table stared at Irina. Eventually, Mikoto was the one to speak up and point out the obvious, "You," she said.

Irina blinked. After a moment, she looked up, trying to catch sight of her own hair. "Well, it's kind of a brownish red..."

"I don't know," Yukino said. "I don't think it's quite close enough. The Maiden's hair was a much stronger red, like Midori or Nao's hair. I don't think even Mai's hair color is close enough. Glamours are pretty finicky."

Irina nodded, seeming a bit relieved. "Alright, who else?" There was a moment of silence at the table, but Irina soon broke it. "Let's go through this feature-by-feature. Any corals with red - _strong_red - hair?"

After a bit, Sara said, "I don't think so. None come to mind."

"Okay, moving on. Next up: Who has big enough breasts to pull off the Maiden's figure?"

"Erstin Ho," Sara said, almost immediately. The sudden response earned her a few raised eyebrows. "We-we sit next to each other in homeroom! I'm not blind, alright?" she said, turning away and crossing her arms.

"Is there any chance she's powerful enough to be the Maiden?" Mai asked.

Sara was silent for a bit, but eventually she turned back to the table and spoke. "No, not unless she's the best actress Garderobe's ever seen. She's... alright, but I doubt even someone like Arika could ever beat Pearls in a duel without even getting a scratch on her."

Irina nodded. "It does seem unlikely, but we just want to make sure we cover all possibilities here. Last up: Eye color. Do any Corals have obviously-red eyes?"

There was a long period of silence at the table. At last, Sara shook her head. "I can't think of any. Certainly none of the best Corals, so I don't think we need to worry about it."

"Alright," Irina said, crossing off a line in her notes. "Next up, the faculty. Any of them would be powerful enough, and the duelspaces will allow faculty members to use them, but doing something like this is against school rules, and Windbloom's laws as well. But just in case... Are there any faculty members who could pull off the glamour?"

"Er..." Akane said. She let out a cough. "Perhaps Professor Sayers? She is... rather well-endowed..."

Yukino shook her head. "No way. She might be able to pull off the glamour, but there's no way I could have landed a hit on her in my duel. She's just way out of my league."

"Okay then," Irina said. "That would probably apply to any other faculty member as well... unless they were deliberately going easy on you. But it doesn't sound like the Maiden's been doing that." Irina looked at her notes. "Alright, next on our list: Natsuki promised to explain what that whole disruption last night was about." Irina looked up at Natsuki and raised an eyebrow.

Natsuki let out a groan. Mai knew as much about it as she did, but of course she was the one left with having to explain it all. "Ugh, fine." She sifted around in her pocket until she found the note she'd received the prior night. She unfolded it and placed it on the table. "I got this note last night, possibly from the Maiden. Nothing but my name on this side..." she flipped the note over, "and what looks like a drop of blood on this side. We were checking last night to see if anyone was in trouble and could only send this out, but I guess that's not the case."

"Huh," Irina said, picking up the note to look at it. "Are you sure no one was in trouble last night?"

"We did check every room. Whether we got a response or not," Natsuki said. "I think someone's trying to send me some type of message with the blood. I do recall hearing that some magic in the past used blood as a component for spells, so it might have something to do with that."

"That's right," Akane said. "I remember that from my history of magic classes. In hermetic magic, all spells had physical components to them. If you wanted to affect a person, you needed their blood. But we've mostly moved beyond that now. People have better figured out how magic works since then, and so physical components aren't needed in most cases. They can still be useful if you need to affect something at a distance, though, or to make a spell have a long-lasting effect."

Mai's eyes widened as she listened to this. "Wait! That's it!" she said. Natsuki turned to look at her, and she clarified. "Think about it: The spirit I talked to said that the knowledge of who the Maiden is was sealed off somehow. Someone cast a spell to keep that information from getting out. What this note means is that someone else knows what's going on, and she's trying to help out."

"Someone does?" Sara said. "I talked to everyone in the school - I had a list. I made sure - and no one knew anything about who the Maiden was."

"Right," Mai said. "Because she wouldn't be able to. Somehow the Maiden cast a spell to bind her from saying anything," Mai picked up the note and held it up so the others could see the drop of blood on it, "perhaps using her own blood to cast the spell. But it looks like she's found a loophole, however tiny, to get a clue to us."

"Okay..." Natsuki says. "But who is it? And how does this help us? Even if there is someone who knows who the Maiden is, what can we do with that?"

"...I don't know," Mai said, slumping back into her seat. "It could be anyone, really. But remember that story I told you about the Maiden's origin, with 'Coral' and 'Pearl'? I think that one of them was inspired from that to become the Maiden, which would probably make the other one our informant."

"Hrm. Maybe," Natsuki said. "But I still don't know what we can do with that knowledge. Are we supposed to ask a faculty member to help dispel whatever spell is binding her? We'd need to know who it is and what the spell is before we could do that, though..." Natsuki shook her head. "No. I don't think that's it. If we assume it's supposed to be a clue, then when we figure it out, it has to actually help us somehow..."

"...In that case," Irina said, "I think it's research time. The books here should have information on old, hermetic spells. We just have to find any spells that use blood, or maybe affect blood somehow. Something will have to jump out at us as relevant."

Akane nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. I really wish I could help, but I do need to get ready for the trip to Fuuka. I'll let you guys know if I find out anything about Midori that might help, though."

"Alright, that's fine," Irina said. "Thanks, Akane."

X-X-X

There wasn't enough time during lunch break for any of the girls to luck out and find something relevant in the library. Mai's study break in the afternoon didn't seem that much more fruitful, either. She'd just finished the book she was looking through, and was prepared to give up, when Mikoto said, "Mai. Come here."

"What is it, Mikoto?" Mai said as she approached her friend.

"What about this?" Mikoto said, pointing to the book in front of her.

Mai turned the book toward herself so she could read what Mikoto had found.

_B17: Spirit Seal_

Reagents:

One (1) Spirit Anchor prepared as C12, attached to a willing spirit as D20.  
Seven (7) ounces of sulphur  
At least seven (7) ounces of blood of any person whose actions are to be sealed, or the person themself.

Effects:

_Spirit attached to anchor will be empowered to block divinations of a given, narrowly-defined subject matter. Any person bound will be unable to discuss this matter or the presence of this spell, as enforced by empowered spirit through bound person's blood._

Preparation and Casting:

This spell has been determined by the Third Order of Hermetic Studies to violate the principles of free will and avoidance of harm, and so its preparation and casting will not be included here.

Dispelling Procedure:

A Spirit Seal may be dispelled through any of the following methods:  
-Disenchant or destroy the Spirit Anchor used for this spell  
-Attach the Spirit Anchor to another spirit  
-Successfully exorcize or banish the empowered spirit while it is in the process of guarding the subject matter

"This certainly seems like a good candidate," Mai said. "I don't know if we can be certain that this is it, but if it is... then this does give us more to work on with what to do." Mai flipped through the book, trying to find out more about what exactly a spirit anchor was. It took her a bit to figure out the book's ordering system - for some reason, it was all arranged in reverse alphabetical and numerical order - but she soon got it. "Okay, so, the spirit anchor is a precious gem of some sort, enchanted to let a spirit have easy access to it, and allowing the caster to contact the spirit easily. It also lets the caster use the spirit's energy to empower their magic," Mai told Mikoto as she read the section.

"So we can use that?" Mikoto said.

"Perhaps..." Mai said. "It could be easy to hide a gem. But perhaps there's some way to divine for it. Or maybe we could ask Miss Steinberg how we could exorcize or banish the spirit. But, first things first," she said, beginning to write out a note to send to the rest of her friends.

X-X-X

_Sounds like it's Nao. She has a suspicious gem on her that could fit the bill. But I'm still not 100% convinced. And we definitely won't be able to get the gem away from her. Trust me; I've been trying._

-Natsuki

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** By pure coincidence, it looks like Chapter 20 exactly (the one after next) will be the big, definitive reveal. So if you're going to make any guesses for the contest, make sure you do it soon!

That's not to say the fic will end there, however. ;)


	20. First Light

**Author's Note:** This chapter isn't as long as others, but you're getting it sooner, so don't complain. :P

A bit of extra history and world building here, since at least one reader expressed curiosity.

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 19:** First Light

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

_Arika Sayers' Garderobe Cheat Sheet_  
_Page 4: History of magic_

_Okay, apparently there were lots of different ways of doing magic in the past, but they boil down to two big types: Spiritual magic and "Hermetic" magic (I'm pretty sure they just made up the word "Hermetic")._

_Spiritual magic is the easy type. You talk to spirits (or primal forces or whatever) in the spirit realm, ask them to do what you want, and they do it. Usually. I'm guessing you have to ask nicely. Oh! You use up some of your own mental energy to do that, which is like your payment to them. Sounds painful though... I wonder if I could find any to help if I just ask nicely enough. Oh, never mind. Apparently I've already been doing that with all the magic I cast here. Sheesh, spirits are cheap. I wonder if I could pay them to do my homework for me..._

_Spiritual magic, in the pure form, was used by people in lots of religious or spiritual practices, though the exact methods of communicating with spirits varied a lot. In Zipang, people would pray to their ancestors and use shrines to communicate with them (called "Ancestral magic"). In Lutetia, Romulus, and Remus, they have this thing called "Natural magic." They find places untouched by humans, like deep in the woods, and then talk with spirits of the earth and plants and stuff. And finally, in Aries, they have this whole pantheon of named spirits (called "saints" - basically, extremely good people in live, so now they help us out in death) that they evoke for various things, usually in temples or shrines. Though they aren't specifically ancestors, so I guess this makes it different from Zipango magic. It's called "Saintly magic," apparently._

_Of the types of magic we learn here, Conjuration, Divination, and Mediation are all based on spiritual magic. Apparently the name of Mediation comes from the fact that you have to do extra negotiating with a spirit to heal people, and tell it exactly what needs to be done._

_Hermetic magic is the tough type. You do some ridiculous ritual - draw a glyph or rune or picture of some sort on the floor with the right material, say the right words, light some candles, burn some incense, and then realize that you misspoke and have to start all over. At least, that's what I assume would happen if I tried that. But apparently if it works, you can do some really ridiculous and long-lasting things. You have to do all the preparation at some point, but you don't necessarily have to cast the spell right away._

_Hermetic magic was mostly kept secret, passed down within secret orders or guilds. Some of them used it for profit, or at least tried to. The only ones who actually seemed to make much money out of it were those who used Illusion magic for performances and stuff. Otherwise, the magic always seemed to cost just as much to cast as it could make. So they passed down magic tricks as a way to make themselves feel superior, I think. There was one order who tried to use some offensive spells they'd prepared to take over the government, but they were put down pretty easily once they ran out of prepared spells to cast. Since then, most groups swore to pacifism._

_The schools of abjuration, evocation, and illusion were all taken from Hermetic magic. Apparently, Hermetic mages also knew a lot about spirits, but they somehow never thought of asking spirits for information. It was all "make me stronger" or "keep my house cold in the summer." Then again... if some of them did ask spirits for information, maybe they were just good enough to hide it from everyone else. I mean, if they could predict what others would do, how would we ever find out about their secrets?_

_Since the founding of Garderobe, the people working here have been trying to merge the two types of magic together. Like, the Duelspace spell is a mix of the preparation techniques of Hermetic magic, and the conjuring abilities of spirit magic. They've also done a lot of work to make sure we can get the cool effects of Hermetic magic without having to do the complicated rituals. Once you know a few easy tricks for accessing the spirit realm for powers, you can use some standard evocation, illusion, and abjuration powers. Now, if you want to do something really complicated, you have to get into that whole ridiculous preparation business at least once, but once you're familiar with how to do it, it becomes a lot easier._

X-X-X

_"Good evening, Mai," a voice said from somewhere in front of her. "I have a proposal to offer you."_

_Mai narrowed her eyes. "Who are you? And what is this?" As Mai found herself wishing she could see the speaker, a figure became visible in front of her. Red hair, red eyes, too little clothing - there was no question who it was._

_"I believe you should recognize me," the Crimson Maiden said. "As for what this is, it's your dream. It would seem that something is on your mind."_

_"If this is my dream, then you should know damn well what's on my mind," Mai said. It certainly didn't feel like she was dreaming right now. Granted, it looked like a dream - there was absolutely nothing in existence except for her and the Maiden - but it felt all too real. Something fishy was going on here._

_"Oh, I certainly have my suspicions," the Maiden said. She took a step toward Mai, and Mai found it suddenly a bit harder to think straight. There was something about the Maiden's presence that did this to her, but she wasn't falling for it again._

_"No. Stop," Mai said, taking a step back so she could clear her head a bit. "I'm not falling into that trap again."_

_"Oh really?" the Maiden said. "You find yourself having trouble resisting me in your own dreams - where you hold all the cards - and you think that you might be able to resist me in real life? You might wish to rethink this assumption."_

_Mai was silent for a bit, as she glared at the Maiden. Was this her subconscious telling her that she might still have her doubts? But that didn't mean the influence here would be anything like what she'd face in real life. It had certainly been a lot more subtle when she'd faced the Maiden before. She hadn't even realized anything had been going on until long after the fact._

_"No," Mai said, shaking her head. "You're just a manifestation of my own doubts. But I'm not going to succumb. I'm going to go through with this."_

_"I think you misunderstand," the Maiden said. She stepped toward Mai again, but the influence wasn't quite as strong this time. "I'm not a mere figment of your imagination. I _am_ the Crimson Maiden. You're feeling my influence exactly as you will if and when we meet in real life once more. However, this is your dream, and I am a mere visitor. You have the power to wish me away." The Maiden took another step toward Mai. "You have the power to alter the world so that I will have no extraordinary influence on you." One more step, and Mai found herself frozen in place. "But I notice that you haven't done that yet. You're curious about why I'm here, are you not?" One final step. The Maiden reached out and placed her hand gently against Mai's cheek. Mai gulped as she looked into the Maiden's eyes._

_With an effort of will, Mai reached up and grasped the Maiden's wrist. She pulled it away from her face and glared at the Maiden. "I am curious. So speak now, or I will take advantage of the fact that this is my dream to get my revenge here and now."_

_A fire seemed to light up in the Maiden's eyes at this. "I knew I saw something in you. I'm impressed, Mai," she said, taking a step back. "I wish to talk. Let me ask you: Why did you agree to fight me the first time?"_

_"I thought you were Anh Lu," Mai said, trying to keep her focus. "I figured if I could unmask you, I'd have the edge, and I could then beat you."_

_"And what then?" the Maiden said. "Suppose I was Anh. Suppose you won. What did you have in mind for her? Would you make her perform for you, perhaps a sensuous striptease? Or would you strip her yourself, giving her no choice but to let you do as you might to her? It would all be up to you, of course."_

_Mai remained silent. Such thoughts actually had run through her mind, but she certainly wasn't going to admit that. She'd even had thoughts like that when she was in her dorm room, and certainly out of the Maiden's influence. Or perhaps it did extend even that far._

_"Perhaps I'm wrong," the Maiden said. "I've heard tell that the vast majority of women are submissive, though this does not appear to be the case for the subset of women who are capable with magic. You would be surprised indeed how much the thrill of power can affect certain people."_

_There was a flurry of light around the Maiden, and where she'd stood there now was Nao Zhang in her place. Nao cocked a grin. "Then again, perhaps you wouldn't be surprised."_

_Mai blinked. It couldn't be this easy. There was no way the Maiden would just reveal herself like this, particularly after all the trouble she'd gone to to protect the truth of her identity. "Are you-?"_

_"Maybe. Maybe I'm just trying to screw with you," Nao said, her grin widening just a bit. "But listen carefully, Tokiha. You aren't playing with an amateur here. If you want to challenge me, come planning to win. You're good. You just might pull it off. But if you come planning to back out of your forfeit if you lose, I promise you that I can be very creative with ways to make you regret your loss." Nao took one more step back, away from Mai. "Very," she emphasized, before she vanished._

X-X-X

"Are you alright, Mai?" Natsuki asked from behind Mai, causing her to jolt in place.

"Huh?" she said, turning around to look back at her friend. "Um, what do you mean?"

"I mean," Natsuki said, "You were the one who insisted I come to say goodbye to Akane. And then you were more distant than I was through the whole thing. Don't pretend everything's alright."

Mai let out a sigh. "That obvious, huh?" Natsuki nodded. "Ugh, fine. Let's find a place to talk. Somewhere private."

"I know a good spot," Natsuki said. She began walking down the hallway. "My old study spot in the library is pretty secluded. It's in view of a couple other tables, but far enough away that no one will hear us. Though I guess we could head to the dorms if you want."

"Hrm," Mai grunted. "The library should be fine. I need to check a couple things, anyway."

Natsuki led Mai through the library, into the Natural History section. It wasn't of much interest to students during the week, and it was even more desolate on the weekend. Natsuki sat down at a desk hidden behind most of the shelves and said, "Alright. What's up?"

Mai looked around before she sat down. There was another table in view, but no one was sitting there right now. It was private enough, as long as she didn't talk too loudly. "I had a disturbing dream last night," she said. "I uh... think the Crimson Maiden is trying to send me a message."

Natsuki didn't visibly react much to this. In fact, it seemed as though she were trying to suppress a reaction. "What type of message?"

"Well..." Mai said. "I think she knows I plan to challenge her. Which really isn't that surprising, given Irina's lack of restraint. I think her message was that I shouldn't expect to be able to simply back out if I lose to her."

"...Is... is that even possible?" Natsuki said. Her facade seemed to be crumbling a bit. Was that concern that Mai saw? "Can she really get into someone else's dreams like that?"

"I... don't know," Mai said. "That's what I wanted to check. I've never heard of anything like that being possible in class, but I can understand why they wouldn't tell us if it was possible. I think it's probably just my own subconscious anyway..."

"No," Natsuki said. "She did it to me too." Natsuki took a breath, then continued. "Right after her challenge to me, she appeared in my dreams two nights in a row. After that... Well, she was blocked out, though it could take a while to explain. But, I do know some spirits can enter dreams... I don't know about humans, though."

"Unless they can control a spirit," Mai said. "Or ask one to do it for them. Remember that spell I messaged you about yesterday? It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Maiden has an anchored spirit helping her out."

"Hmph. Maybe," Natsuki said. "...I'm still not convinced we got that one right, to be honest. It just doesn't make sense."

"How so?" Mai asked.

Natsuki leaned back in her chair. It took a bit before she replied. "Before yesterday, the only person who knew that I knew about that jewel of Nao's was Nao herself, unless maybe she told someone else about it. I doubt that's the case, though. Why would she send a message if it was supposed to lead us to her? Wouldn't she try to throw us off track if she did send a message?"

"Well... maybe she wants to confess," Mai said. "But because of her own spell to seal off the knowledge, she can't do it."

"Nah. Why would she block herself off from speaking about it in the first place? The spell didn't seem to require that," Natsuki said. "Add to that, I already went to see her last night, in case that was the case. Figured I might be able to get the gem away from her and disenchant it, but... well, she didn't like that idea. I'll say that much. Not to mention, the note was addressed to 'Natsuki' - Nao always calls me 'Kruger.'" Natsuki shook her head. "It just isn't her that sent it."

"Ah..." Mai said. "Well... someone else still might have found out about the gem, and they were pointing you to Nao... I mean, well, in my dream last night, the Maiden did take on Nao's appearance at one point."

Natsuki raised an eyebrow. "Huh..." Natsuki let out a sigh. "A lot of things pointing to Nao, huh? I don't buy it, though. It feels like someone's trying to lead us off course."

Mai let out a sigh. "I take it I don't have your approval to challenge the Maiden, then?" she said.

"Heh, I wouldn't risk it," Natsuki said. "I'm about 90% sure that if you challenge the Maiden, it won't be Nao. I could imagine her challenging some of the Corals as the Maiden, but not anyone she might actually lose to. There's no way Nao would make a bet like that if it weren't rigged from the start."

"It's hard to believe anyone would do that..." Mai said. "I can't believe anyone here would do that in their right mind. ...Though perhaps if they were pushed a little as well, they could..."

"Hrm," Natsuki responded noncommittally. She took out a piece of paper from her pocket, and flipped it over in her hands as she inspected it. Mai caught side a red blotch on it. It was the message Natsuki had received a couple nights ago. "There has to be something I'm missing here..."

"Maybe it's Midori... and she's trying to scare me off from accepting the challenge, so we won't be able to prove it's her..." Mai said.

Natsuki shook her head. "She doesn't know me at all. She'd send the message to Akane, or maybe Irina..." Natsuki flipped the message over again. She was staring at the drop of blood on it, as if willing it to make sense.

"Ugh..." Mai said. "Maybe we're overthinking this. Irina's plan is solid. We've ruled out everyone but Nao and Midori. If I challenge the Maiden now, it has to be one of them. If she accepts, it's Nao. Otherwise, we wait until the dueling statistics are updated and see who it is."

"Or else she accepts, it isn't Nao, and she doesn't let you back out," Natsuki said, shaking her head slowly. "I can't let you risk that, Mai."

"It's my choice to make, Natsuki. I'm willing to take the risk," Mai said. "I'll even use Yukino's trick. If you don't get a message from me by half an hour after it starts, get a faculty member to help me out."

Natsuki grunted. "Oh yeah. I'm sure Miss Maria will be just ecstatic to get you out of that. If we're going to involve the faculty, why bother dueling the Maiden at all? All this dream invasion stuff should be enough to get them worried."

"Tch. Miss Maria certainly didn't seem to believe me when I told her about the possible manipulation... I doubt she'll take me seriously about this." Mai let out a sigh and leaned forward. "Fine. I won't challenge the Maiden. What does the great Natsuki Kruger think we should do instead? I know you're as sick of this as I am, and I know you want to catch her just as much. So tell me: What's the plan?"

Natsuki didn't meet Mai's gaze. Her eyes were glued to the message she held within her hand. "...I'll challenge her. And I'll beat her. And then I'll unmask her."

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** The big reveal will be coming next chapter. I won't be posting it on my blog in pieces, like with the other chapters. Instead, it will all be revealed at once. To build up the anticipation, and to make sure I have time to get it done well, I'll tell you now that I'll be posting it next Friday – June 1.

As a final reminder, I'm running a contest here for who can guess the answer, with the reward being a request from me. I'll be looking for the most complete answer – how many real clues were caught, how many red herrings ignored or explained, etc. – and using who posts it first as a tiebreaker. So even if you think someone else has already guessed it, you might still be able to win by getting all the clues right. Guess away, either here or in the forum! (Link for the forum thread is in my profile.) Additionally, I'm taking away the limitation on one official guess per chapter, and making it one official guess per day. That gives you a lot of guesses to work with, but don't go throwing them away, as completeness is what matters.

Good luck, and see you on the 1st!


	21. Howling Silverwolf

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 20:** Howling Silverwolf

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the Crimson Maiden_

_Part One_

A good scam doesn't rely on beating the mark at a game. A good scam relies only on getting the mark to accept the basic premises you lay out for her. So the question becomes: Is the Crimson Maiden playing a game, or is she running a scam?

If she were playing a game, there would have to a chance she would lose. Out of all the people the Crimson Maiden has fought, Mai Tokiha seems to be the only one who even had a remote chance of defeating her. For everyone else, her victory was a foregone conclusion. It's pretty much what you'd expect if a Crystal picked a duel with a Pearl or Coral, or a Pearl picked a duel with a Coral. There's nothing against that in the school rules, of course – it can be a good learning experience for the younger student – but no one ever duels someone from a different year for any significant stakes.

So how does the Crimson Maiden get duels at all, given the stakes that she demands? Well, I can look at the two cases I know about. Mai accepted because she thought the Maiden was Anh Lu, who she had a crush on at the time. Yukino Chrysant accepted because she thought the Maiden was Haruka Armitage, who _she_ had a crush on. How many other students who dueled the Maiden were led to believe that it was someone they were crushing on?

Now, the catch to all of this is that the Maiden is dueling in disguise. If her disguise were ever successfully dispelled, the blowback from it would give the Maiden's opponent a real chance to win the duel. This actually gives some people the incentive to accept the duel – Mai thought that she could win after she dispelled the Maiden's glamour – but it relies on the opponent always being wrong. In fact, if the opponent is wrong, then the attempted dispel would backfire on them, making the Maiden's victory assured.

No, this isn't a game at all. The Maiden's stacked the deck in her favor. I can see her working on Mai right now. She's trying to convince Mai that she's Nao, so that Mai will be willing to accept the Maiden's challenge and try to unmask her. It's almost certainly part of the scam.

The point of all of this is that if I approach this as a simple mystery, a simple case of ruling out some people and looking for evidence toward someone else, the Maiden can be expected to be one step ahead of me. The only way to solve this is to see through the scam. I have to figure out what basic premise of the mystery is being violated here, and only then can I figure out who the Maiden really is.

Let's look at this carefully, and see if I can spot the thread I need to tug on.

X-X-X

Although she was pretty sure she'd figured out who the Crimson Maiden was, Natsuki wasn't going to make the mistake of barging in and trying to unmask the Maiden as soon as their duel began. The Maiden was running a scam, and Natsuki knew better than to try to beat a scammer at their own game. Perhaps this time she was right, but she couldn't count on that. She'd keep the option open in case things went badly in their duel, but that was Plan B. Plan A was to win the duel by running a scam of her own.

There weren't any official rules at Garderobe for duels between students. Students were free to set up whatever rules they wanted for duels, and the duelspace spell would automatically enforce them. The spell had a few automatic rules of its own, such as preventing permanent harm to anyone inside the space and removing any weapons before the duel began, but there was really no concept of cheating. If it was possible to do in a duel, it was fair play. If you tried to push the limits of what you could do, other students would soon find out and demand "fair" rules be put into place before they'd agree to duel you, or you might have trouble finding anyone to agree at all.

But for a case like this, Natsuki wasn't the slightest bit worried about fair play. The Maiden certainly wasn't going to be in a position to complain that Natsuki was being unfair. The only trick was figuring out what Natsuki could do to help tilt the odds in her favor. She already had one ace in the hole, thanks to her Dream Shizuru powering up Duran for her, but it almost certainly wouldn't be enough. It would give Duran an edge against most Childs, but he could still have a hard time with some of the naturally powerful Childs like Kagutsuchi or Kiyohime. He would probably be able to fight either of them to a standstill, Natsuki hoped, but that still left her with the problem of how to fight the Maiden herself.

Her recent duel with Nao had given her an idea, though. Nao had set up a spell to protect herself from ice magic, but it came with the drawback of making her more vulnerable to fire magic. It was something Natsuki remembered from her Abjuration courses: To make yourself immune to a type of magic, you had to attune yourself to it, which would naturally result in making the opposing element more effective against you. As such, elemental protection spells weren't typically very useful – as soon as your opponent figured out you'd cast one on yourself, you were worse off than if you hadn't cast it at all.

The Crimson Maiden primarily used fire, so if Natsuki could somehow prevent her from realizing that Natsuki was using a protection spell, she could help herself survive for quite a while in battle. The problem was, she had next to zero skill with Illusion. There was a way around that, but first she'd need to figure out how to set up the spell in the first place.

A few seconds after Natsuki had knocked, the door opened. "Natsuki?" Yukino said. "What's up?"

"I need your help," Natsuki said. "Can we talk?"

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the Crimson Maiden_

_Part Two_

Let's look at motive for a bit. What's the Maiden's goal here? Well, I can really only think of one thing: Fun. She gets some perverse kick out of having complete control in an encounter, and this is how she gets it. Shinso knows there are a ton of people out there into some crazy shit, so this really isn't that odd of a kink, when all is told. But with all the manipulation that she does in order to engage in it, she's really crossed a line. Yukino thought she'd been raped after her encounter with the Maiden, and I think Mai might be feeling a bit violated as well. It's just unforgivable.

So let's go through our suspects list, and think about who might have a matching motive:

Mai: Well, I'm pretty sure she has a libido, but I've seen no indication that it's this kinky. Plus, she's just a nice person. I can't imagine her being manipulative. On a five-point scale, I'd rate her a two.

Nao: She can definitely be manipulative. It wouldn't even surprise me if it's a fetish for her. But I haven't seen much evidence that her libido is all that strong. Plus, she's been devoting a lot of her free time to getting extra money to pay for her mother's medical bills. Would she really waste time to indulge her own kinks? She'd have to have a ridiculously strong libido to motivate her to do that, which doesn't strike me as that likely. I can't rule it out, though. I'll rate her a three for motive.

Haruka: No. She's not manipulative, she's not at all driven by sex, and I'd be surprised if she even knows the meaning of the word "fetish." Plus, her moral compass is just far, far too strong. She gets a big fat zero for motive.

Midori: Kinky as hell, and way too horny for her own good. According to Akane, she particularly likes games (though not scams). She might be a bit subtly manipulative, but Akane doesn't seem to think it's to the extent of the Maiden. She does seem to have a strong moral compass, though. I'm giving her a three here, though maybe that's a point low.

Shizuru: Well... she has admitted to having some... indecent dreams about me. But she's been holding herself back for my sake. There are rumors around school that she's kinky, but I don't think they have any basis in fact. She can be a bit manipulative though – her teasing relies on that. But the big problem with motive is that if she really does care for me, there's absolutely no way she'd challenge Yukino as the Maiden. If she can really fool me that well... No. Just no. I'll give her a one here.

Yeah yeah, I know three of 'em have alibis for the fight with Yukino. I'll get to that.

X-X-X

Natsuki checked over her shoulders to make sure no one was around. She wasn't doing anything wrong here; she just wanted to make sure her secret didn't get out to the Maiden before their duel. The field looked clear, so Natsuki focused her mind and called to Duran.

When Natsuki had summoned Duran in the past, she could often hear faint echoes of his bark. This time, however, it was a bit different. An image of Shizuru passed through her mind unbidden, and it merged with Duran's spirit. Duran let out a fearsome howl from within Natsuki's mind as he began to take form in the real world.

The ground shook beneath Natsuki, and she nearly lost her footing. Somehow, though, she was able to remain standing while Duran rose up beneath her. Natsuki first thought that she'd ended up on his back, but no, this was just his head. Natsuki balanced herself as Duran rose to his full height, and she had to remind him not to let out his usual howl. She didn't want to attract any attention she could avoid right now, though it might be a bit difficult given Duran's current size.

Natsuki knelt down and stroked her hand across Duran's head. "Good boy, thanks," she said. She took a moment to look around, trying to judge his current size. This was really something – he had to be at least as big as Kagutsuchi now, perhaps even as big as Kiyohime. She might actually have a shot against the Maiden with Duran on her side.

However, in the worst case scenario, Duran might only be able to fight the Maiden's child to a standstill. Natsuki needed a backup plan in case that happened. Taking care not to fall off of the side of Duran, Natsuki slid down his neck to his back, and looked up at one of his cannons. A bit big, but with a few modifications, it would serve her needs. Natsuki raised her hands up to the cannon and opened up her mind to its form.

This wasn't even close to how a Crystal was supposed to form her Element, but it would work. She didn't have time to memorize the summoning spell and make it a part of herself, but she only needed to be able to summon this once. Once she had a complete picture of the cannon locked in her mind, Natsuki reached into her pocket to take out the ink she'd prepared.

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the Crimson Maiden_

_Part Three_

Alright, let's look at opportunity now. For most of the Maiden's encounters, we hadn't been trying to see who had an alibi or not, so this is all based on the encounter with Yukino.

Mai: At work, coworkers vouch for her. 1/5

Nao: Unaccounted for. 4/5

Haruka: At a disciplinary committee meeting. Could possibly have altered the memories of everyone there, but not very likely. 2/5

Midori: Unaccounted for. 4/5

Shizuru: On a date with me. Waitress remembers her, and I have the receipt from it. 1/5

I'm not going to go up to a 5/5 for Midori or Nao, as we're really just basing this off of one incident.

X-X-X

"Are you sure about this, Natsuki?" Mai said. She sat down on her bed while Natsuki took a seat at her desk. "The Maiden really sounded like she wouldn't be happy if I backed out of the forfeit, and I doubt things will be any different for you."

"I know," Natsuki said, "but I have to do this. I can beat her. And even if things do go bad, I can always just unmask her."

"If you're that sure, then why fight her at all? Why not just unmask her first?" Mai said.

"...Because it's time she lost," Natsuki said. "I can do it. I've already got three aces in hand. With one more, my victory's assured. And as much as I'm sure I have it figured out, I'm even more sure I can beat her."

Mai was silent for a bit as she stared at Natsuki. "You do know that a straight flush still beats four aces, right?"

Natsuki glared back at Mai. "It's a metaphor."

Mai rolled her eyes. "That's not the point. The point is, don't underestimate the Maiden. She's as good as a Crystal, just without an Element."

Natsuki smirked at this. "My goal is to overestimate her. But to do that, I'm going to need to know everything possible about how she battles. In particular, I'm going to need to know how you managed to land a hit on her."

"Haa..." Mai let out a sigh. She shook her head. "If I refuse to tell you, will you give up on challenging the Maiden?"

Natsuki narrowed her eyes at Mai. "No. I need to settle this."

"Ugh, fine," Mai said. "Will you at least consider Yukino's 'dead man's switch' idea? Promise to do that, and I'll help you however I can."

"Alright," Natsuki said, a smile crossing her face. "I promise."

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the Crimson Maiden_

_Part Four_

The last big factor is means. That is, who's skilled enough to do what the Crimson Maiden has done?

Mai: She's good in battle, and she could beat any other Pearl. But I don't think she'd be able to fool Yukino so thoroughly. She's not that good at Illusion, so she probably couldn't pull off a detailed memory charm, and she has no skill at Divination of her own to help guide her on what she'd need to do to manipulate people. 2/5

Nao: She could beat some Pearls, and any Coral, but probably not Mai. She is good at Divination – perhaps too good. Her reputation as the Oracle was pretty ridiculous, though some of it may have been exaggerated. I don't know how good she is with illusions, though. Problem is, I can't see her challenging Mai to a fight – she'd be gambling big time with that. 4/5

Haruka: Certainly strong enough, though she doesn't have any particular skill with Divination, and she probably has a moral compulsion against illusion. 1/5

Midori: Same deal as Haruka, pretty much, although I doubt she has quite as much of a compulsion against Illusion. 2/5

Shizuru: She does have some skill with Divination and Illusion, and she's more than powerful enough in battle. 4/5

X-X-X

"I see you came," the Maiden said as the duelspace coalesced around Natsuki, her tone perfectly neutral. Her face was nearly impossible to read as she spoke. "Are you certain about this?"

It was hard for Natsuki to tell, but she thought that the Maiden might have made that question a bit ambiguous on purpose. If she was right, then it just further confirmed Natsuki's conclusion. "I am now," she said. "I'll give you one chance, though. Come clean now – about everything – and I _might_ forgive you."

A small smile appeared on the Maiden's face, although it seemed to hold no joy. "I suspect you know full well that that is not a possibility," she said. Her eyes seemed to flicker momentarily, and her expression hardened. "Which makes me wonder: Why would you ask at all? Do not expect to impress me with a facade of bravado. You are the one here who should be hoping for mercy, not me. If you expect the slightest amount of regard for your desires, you had best not disappoint me in battle. I have heard great things about you, and it would be a shame if you were to fail to live up to your reputation."

Natsuki let out a grunt. She wasn't going to get anything more out of the Maiden at this point. Rather than speaking any further, she shifted into a battle stance. Everything was as ready as it possibly could be; she'd even worn her official battle robe for this duel. It was now or never. Without a word of warning – at this point, the Maiden deserved no courtesy – Natsuki cast a spell to strike at the Maiden with a pillar of ice from below her feet.

The Maiden was easily able to evade the attack, shifting off to the side and grinning at Natsuki, as if to ask if that was the best she could do. Natsuki hadn't been planning to hit the Maiden with this attack, though. As soon as the pillar had fully formed, it shattered, spraying ice shards around the room near the Maiden. The coverage of her attack was too wide for the Maiden to avoid, but she was able to neutralize it by raising a shield of flame, which was exactly what Natsuki had been counting on from the beginning.

According to Mai, the Maiden held tightly to her fire theme, deviating from it only when absolutely necessary. Of note, this included her shields, which had the side effect of blocking out her view more than traditional shields when they were used. And so, while the Maiden had her shield up, Natsuki used her opponent's momentary blindness to send magical energy coursing through her left arm. The runes she'd drawn on it lit up with energy, casting the spell she'd prepared with Yukino to shield Natsuki from the Maiden's fire attacks while presenting the illusion of taking damage from them.

Natsuki's body flickered for a moment as the spell took effect, but she'd already begun to charge toward the Maiden. She was expecting a counterattack, and the Maiden didn't disappoint. The Maiden shot off a barrage of fireballs at Natsuki as she charged, while Natsuki focused on summoning a blade of ice within her hand and dodging as many fireballs as she could – she didn't want to make it obvious that she was using a protection spell, after all.

As Natsuki got close to the Maiden, one of the fireballs managed to strike her arm. Natsuki didn't feel any pain from it, though her body winced automatically to make it look like she did. She didn't let it stop her, though. She swung the ice blade she'd conjured at the Maiden, trying to anticipate the Maiden's dodge and adjust the path of her strike so it would land true, but the Maiden managed to keep just a step ahead of Natsuki. She dodged Natsuki's first two strikes and then, when Natsuki thrust toward her, she conjured her flame shield again to melt the blade.

The Maiden's reflexes were good, easily on par with Natsuki's, but Natsuki wasn't going to give up her offensive this easily. She quickly began to conjure small shards of ice, which she launched at the Maiden, trying to get at least one through her guard. The Maiden did have to raise her shield to defend against some of them, but none managed to actually hit her. She even managed to shoot a few fireballs of her own at Natsuki while dodging, but Natsuki was able to avoid being hit by any of them.

Natsuki needed something to break the stalemate. Gambling that the Maiden's shield would be tuned to ward off elemental attacks, Natsuki expended a bit of extra energy to conjure shards of stone inside her ice shards before she shot off the next wave. She gave the shards an extra push in hopes of doing some actual damage to the Maiden, but the time she spend focusing on this gave the Maiden an opening to strike Natsuki with a whip of flame. Natsuki winced automatically, but her shards had already been fired. The Maiden raised her shield to defend against the barrage, but it only succeeded in melting the ice, while the stone shards sailed through and struck her body.

_First blood, Natsuki. _Natsuki thought, grinning. _Not that she knows that she hasn't actually harmed me yet, though._

The Maiden scowled at Natsuki. A shockwave emanated out from her, throwing Natsuki back. Natsuki managed to land on her feet, but it gave the Maiden the opening she needed to summon her Child.

"Kiyohime."

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the Crimson Maiden_

_Part Five_

Totals so far:

Mai: 5/15

Nao: 11/15

Haruka: 3/15

Midori: 9/15

Shizuru: 6/15

Looking at it like that, the Maiden's probably either Nao or Midori, with an edge to Nao, but neither of them is really a good fit. There's something missing here. Some key premise that I've been taking for granted is being violated here.

The first thing to check is whether I might be missing someone who could fit the bill. Is there someone else who could pull off the glamour? In short, it doesn't seem like it. Illusions are finicky things, and I'm not just trusting Yukino here. I checked this in the library, and I asked Miss Steinberg about it. There's no way around the basic rules of Illusion. If you dyed your own hair before trying to cast a glamour on yourself with your new hair color being the maintained feature, it would fizzle. Wear colored contact lenses, same deal. Pad your bra, get a haircut, whatever. A glamour relies on how people are used to seeing you.

The second assumption is that the Maiden is human at all. Something came to me and Mai in our dreams, and humans can't do that, but spirits can. However, spirits can't manifest without a human host, and even then, their new appearances are still bound by the same rules as a glamour. Plus, there's the way the duelspace spell works. It was designed for two humans to use, and it's triggered based on that. I haven't checked to make sure that spirits can't use it, but there's really no reason for the faculty to have programmed that possibility into it, since they can't manifest on their own anyway. Perhaps someone could be possessed, though.

If we allow for the possibility that someone might have been possessed, then we can ignore all the motive scores. They still need the means and opportunity, though. A spirit can give a person more experience, but they can't compensate for a lack of talent in a particular area (at least, as far as I know).

Mai: 3/10

Nao: 8/10

Haruka: 3/10

Midori: 6/10

Shizuru: 5/10

Not much difference here, really. Assuming spirit possession doesn't really help us out, so we can probably ignore it. Maybe it's the case, or maybe not, but it's not going to help solve the mystery either way.

The final assumption here we have to check is that the Maiden is actually just one person. This is the key. As I mentioned, no suspect is perfect, but that's only if they have to do everything. If different duels were performed by different people, then we can solve a few big problems. In particular, I suspect exactly two people are acting as the Maiden. Mai presented a story about the Maiden's origins, involving two students, "Coral" and "Pearl." It's not much of a stretch to believe that the two of them have since been working together as the Maiden and keeping the secret, but it's much more of a stretch to believe someone else was brought in, and the secret still hasn't managed to slip out.

X-X-X

"_Let me handle this one," the spirit said. "I have a bit of a grudge to settle." Kiyohime tried to focus on this other spirit, but it didn't seem quite right. At times, it looked like a raven-haired human, but at other times it looked like Kiyohime itself._

_The pull of the summoning spell on Kiyohime began to wane as the other spirit moved toward the caster. The other spirit pushed toward the edge of the spirit realm... _

...and before the Child could fully form, it collapsed into itself and withdrew back to the spirit realm. The Crimson Maiden stared stunned at the spot where the Child had failed to form, but Natsuki wasn't asking questions at the moment. She was able to use the Maiden's momentary distraction to successfully strike her with a pair of icicles. One just hit her upper arm and bounced off, but the other lodged itself into her shoulder.

The Maiden grimaced as she cast a spell to help her wounds heal and raised her shield. "Very well," she said, her voice betraying a hint of pain. "If Kiyohime does not wish to fight you, I shall call a more obedient Child. Miroku! Your master calls out to you!"

"_Miroku..."? _Natsuki tried to recall if she'd ever heard of that Child before, but the name didn't ring a bell. She wasn't going to let herself get distracted, though. She shot off another barrage of icicles as soon as the Maiden's shield dropped, but the Maiden was able to dodge them all. Natsuki didn't have anymore time to attack right now, though, as the ground beneath the Maiden had split open, and a rock creature of some sort was beginning to rise from it.

"Duran!" Natsuki called out. She kept an eye on the Maiden as Duran formed beneath her, ready for any attack that might be incoming. However, the Maiden seemed to be content to show off her Child right now, and Natsuki couldn't entirely blame her. It was easily the biggest Child that Natsuki had ever seen – even dwarfing Kiyohime. It wasn't very fancy – just a big floating boulder with a couple arms and a huge sword – but it certainly looked tough. Even when Duran reached his newly-enhanced full size, he still stood shorter than Miroku. This wasn't going to be as easy as Natsuki had hoped.

"I see that I'm not the only one with a surprise," the Maiden called out, "but do not think that your pet dog is any match for Miroku." Miroku glowed slightly as the Maiden used her own magic to enhance it, and it swung its sword toward Duran.

"Dur-" Natsuki began to say, but Duran had already leaped out of the path of Miroku's sword. As soon as the blade had passed, Duran charged after Miroku's arm, as if reading Natsuki's thoughts before she could instruct him. He'd already begun to it so by this point, but Natsuki felt compelled to call out, "Load Chrome Cartridge!" as it just didn't feel right without saying that.

Duran waited to fire until he'd gotten some distance from Miroku. He dodged a vertical slash from Miroku's blade, then aimed toward the head of the Child and fired off his cannons. Miroku seemed to shrug off the attack, although from a flicker of light near its head, Natsuki hoped that the Maiden had at least needed to use her shield.

This was going to be a long fight.

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the Crimson Maiden_

_Part Six_

Let's start with a simple question: Who dueled Yukino? We're limited to just Nao and Midori here, unless we really try to stretch things. Yukino isn't that good of a duelist, so it's not much of a stretch to think Nao could confidently defeat her. Nao is also good enough with Divination to come up with a plan to convince Yukino to accept the duel – it's somewhat similar to the tips she gave criminals as the Oracle. I don't know if she could do a memory charm, but I wouldn't put it past her. Midori, on the other hand, has no particular skill with either Divination or Illusion.

Already, Nao is looking to be a lot more likely, but there's one more thing to clinch it: Irina believed that Nao had a crush on me, as Mikoto had noticed her gazing at our table during lunch a lot. However, her actions when we've met are nothing like how a sane person would express a crush. But the thing is, I wasn't the only person to join that table at the time Mikoto first noticed Nao staring: Yukino joined as well. If Nao had a crush on Yukino, then suddenly a lot about this particular duel begins to make sense. Let's say Nao was afraid of rejection – she did turn out to be sentimental about her mother, so she does indeed have a heart. She wanted a way that she could confess to Yukino and find out her reaction, but still be able to go on without embarrassment if she were rejected, which was why she offered to reveal her identity after the duel, but only with Yukino under a memory charm.

Was this the only time Nao acted as the Maiden? Probably not, but I'll get to that.

X-X-X

One of the benefits of fighting with your bonded Child was that you knew everything about their capabilities – though you might not necessarily remember it right away. Natsuki searched through her mind, finding her link with Duran and searching it for any information about Duran that might help him deal with Miroku. So far, he'd had no luck with piercing the other Child's armor, but there had to be a way around that. A teacher had once mentioned that in principle, any Child could beat any other, so they would all have to have a way to deal with something like Miroku's armor. Natsuki was certain that there was something she was forgetting, but she needed time to focus and pull out the information from the depths of her mind.

Natsuki had gotten complacent; that was her problem. She'd figured out how to battle well with Duran, and she'd never tried to do anything new. She'd never experimented with another Child, and she hadn't even tried some of Duran's more obscure abilities. As she pulled up information in her memory right now, she was finding things she'd never thought of before, like the fact that Duran actually had a flight mode for long-distance travel. She really should have looked into this before.

It wasn't long before Natsuki's distraction resulted in her misjudging where Miroku was going to strike with its sword. She didn't have any time to shout out a command when she realized that the sword was swinging directly toward her, and Duran was barely able to begin to move in time. The sword missed Natsuki, but it struck one of Duran's cannons and sliced through it, cutting a large gash in Duran's flank. The Child cried out in pain, and Natsuki's heart jumped into her chest. _Duran... This is my fault. I'm sorry, boy..._

Natsuki gazed at Duran's injury and the broken cannon. She would find a way to win this, and she would make it up to Duran later. _Wait..._ Natsuki blinked as she looked at the broken cannon. She could see Duran's spare cartridges in it now, but one of them wasn't familiar to her. Looking up the information in her mind, it came to her. She should have been ready for this, but at least she could try to do something now. "Duran! Load Magnum Cartridge!"

Duran began to move beneath Natsuki, running to dodge Miroku's next attack as his remaining cannon loaded up the new type of cartridge. Natsuki mentally hit herself for forgetting about this option. She'd learned about it when she was a Coral, but she'd never run into a Child whose armor could withstand Duran's other attacks before, so she'd never needed to use this option. _Find an opening, aim for the center,_ Natsuki mentally commanded Duran.

The Magnum Cartridge on its own wouldn't be able to do enough damage to Miroku. It was designed only to pierce through armor, not to cause significant damage to another Child. For that, Duran would have to follow up with another attack. Natsuki didn't like his chances of being able to do that, though. As soon as he paused to fire, Miroku would probably be able to land a hit on him before he could run off again, thanks to his injury slowing him down. At that point, Natsuki would have essentially lost the battle.

She'd have to pull out her final ace. Natsuki charged energy through her right arm, pausing briefly to raise a shield to guard against a barrage of stones that Miroku shot at her and Duran. Duran grunted as the stones hit him, but he was able to remain on his feet, and he could dodge the Child's next attack without too much trouble. With the time this gave her, Natsuki was able to finish casting the spell she'd prepared, and a replica of Duran's cannon materialized over her shoulder.

Natsuki quickly cast an Abjuration on herself to support her strength, letting her hold up and stabilize the cannon. The Conjuration spell she'd cast had filled her mind with instructions for operating the cannon, so she loaded up a Chrome Cartridge and began to charge it up for as powerful of an attack as it could manage. "Duran, fire as soon as you can!" Natsuki said.

Duran growled in understanding. Natsuki focused her efforts on stabilizing the cannon and not falling off of Duran's back while the Child dodged Miroku's attacks. She winced as a fireball from the Maiden struck her, but her protection spell was still working to prevent her any harm. After Miroku's sword was lodged in the ground from a strike, Duran paused and aimed toward the center of the Child. As soon as Duran had aimed at it, Natsuki engaged the firing protocol on her own cannon. Natsuki looked through the cannon's sights and aimed it, while the readout began to count down.

_Howling Silverwolf Engaged..._

_3..._

The sound of a blast came from Natsuki's side as Duran fired his Magnum Cartridge at Miroku. The Child let out a fierce, pained roar as its armor was broken off.

_2..._

Natsuki adjusted her sight, aiming the cannon at the expanding dust cloud coming from the center of Miroku's body. A fierce pain ran through her exposed shoulder as a falling fragment from the Child struck her, but she managed to hold the cannon steady.

_1..._

Natsuki and Duran were pushed back as a red beam shot out of her cannon. The blast pushed into Miroku, and red light soon began to leak out from cracks in the Child's armor. Within seconds, the energy was too much for it, and the Child's armor was blasted apart. Natsuki caught sight of a falling human figure amid the Child's rubble, which became more easily visible as Miroku's body was absorbed back into the spirit realm.

The Maiden was able to cast a spell on herself to slow her descent, but without a Child, there was almost no point. Duran walked over toward her on Natsuki's mental command, and Natsuki looked down at the Maiden.

"Surrender," she said. She was still angry over Duran getting hurt, and she let it be heard in her voice. "I want to hear you admit that you lost."

"I cannot," the Maiden said, looking up at Natsuki. A blue glow began to emanate from her hands as she prepared an ice spell. Had she finally figured out about Natsuki's protection spell? There was no time to wonder, though. Natsuki had Duran charge forward and block the attack and then slam the side of his face into the Maiden. The Maiden was knocked down, and Duran placed his front foot on her to hold her to the ground.

Natsuki let out a sigh. Of course it would have to come to this. Of course the Maiden couldn't admit defeat. Natsuki cast an Abjuration on herself to slow her fall as she jumped off of Duran, and she approached the Maiden. The other girl looked over at her, not with anger, but with sadness. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, her expression sharply changed.

"Do you really think you've won here?" the Maiden said. "You have no idea what you're up against."

"I know enough," Natsuki said. She gazed into the Maiden's eyes, focusing on their crimson color as she cast an unmasking spell. "Be unmasked, Shizuru Viola!"

X-X-X

_Report by Natsuki Kruger on the Crimson Maiden_

_Part Seven_

The next question to ask is: Who did Mai duel? Not Nao, almost certainly. I just can't imagine Nao would do something like this with the chance that she would lose. She's dueled Mai before and lost, so why would it be any different doing it under disguise? Adding to that, the Maiden is now dropping hints to Mai that she's Nao, which means that she probably isn't. So, this leaves Haruka, Midori, and Shizuru. Midori's already on her way to the other side of the world. She'd have no reason to try to convince Mai of anything, as if the duel's accepted, she won't be able to show up in any case.

That leaves Haruka and Shizuru, along with the possibility that Mai herself is the Maiden, and this duel is all a fabrication. To be honest, it's hard to imagine any of these three as the Maiden. Haruka would never do it in the first place, Mai would probably never do it in the first place, but she certainly wouldn't try to manipulate her friends. She's in the same year as Nao, so this wouldn't seem to fit with the "Coral and Pearl" story, but I can't use that as evidence, as she would lie about the story in that case. That doesn't mean I really think it's her, though. As for Shizuru, she might have done it before as a way to handle her own libido without her image suffering, but at this point, she'd confess to me in a heartbeat.

This brings me to the note I received. I think it was trying to send me a message. There are two possible things to take from it: My name, and a drop of blood. Of the five suspects, only Mai and Shizuru would be so casual with me. It's probably from one of them trying to send me a message.

Now, the blood. The spell that Mikoto found mentions, "Any person bound will be unable to discuss this matter or the presence of this spell, as enforced by empowered spirit through bound person's blood." That's pretty vague about how exactly it's enforced... but if I'm right, it points to Shizuru.

Let's say Shizuru were the Maiden in the past, and she wanted to confess to me. Even if she were bound by this spell, she'd make an effort. At which point, the spirit would take hold of her blood to prevent her from doing so. Maybe no one would notice. Maybe it would cause some minor internal harm to her. Perhaps she'd get a mysterious bruise. Perhaps a nosebleed. "Dry air" indeed.

If I'm right, then Shizuru eventually decided to find some loophole to get around the spell. She tried to write a note to me, in case only talking was banned. But she was only able to get my name written down before the spirit took hold of her. She gets a nosebleed, and perhaps one drop hits the note before she can stifle it. I'm not sure why it would be on the opposite side from my name, though. Maybe she made a few attempts before giving up and turning the note over, and it was only at that point that the blood finally dripped from her nose. Or maybe it was a way to try to hide the relevance of that drop from the spirit who was watching her. That way, she could later turn the note over, and send what appeared to be a blank message to me.

The only question remaining is: Why is Shizuru under this spell in the first place, if she is indeed the Maiden? The only idea I have for this is that Nao has also been acting as the Maiden, and she and Shizuru were both in this together from the beginning. Perhaps they're both bound by the spell, possibly because they weren't sure they could trust each other. Thinking about it, there was that time at the jeweler's, where Nao appeared to be injured from a fall. It was quite an awkward fall though, and with way too much blood too quickly. Maybe she too had been trying to confess, and when her efforts began to take a toll on her, she faked a fall in order to cover up the blood.

I'll admit, I'm guessing a lot here, but it all seems to work. If it was Shizuru, then she has indeed been faithful to me since we got together. That doesn't mean I can forgive her, though. A lie of omission is still a lie, and if I'm right about this, she willingly accepted being bound by the spell.

The only thing I don't know is why. Why go through with all of this just to satisfy a fetish? How could it possibly be worth it to them? Shizuru really has some explaining to do.

X-X-X

"I surrender." The words left Shizuru's mouth almost before the unmasking spell had finished removing the glamour from her. Duran faded back into the spirit realm above her, and she turned her head away from Natsuki. "Forgive me..." she said.

"Not yet," Natsuki said. She hadn't wanted to believe it. Until this moment, she hadn't even been completely sure. She approached Shizuru and said in a low voice, "and maybe never. What the fuck did you think you were doing?"

"I... I was..." Shizuru said. "I wasn't the perfect person I made myself out to be... I was weak..."

"Weak?" Natsuki said. "Tell me the truth. Why did you do this? Tell me every detail. Every reason. Every excuse."

"I was unfulfilled," Shizuru said, the duelspace's magic taking control of her and making her obey Natsuki's command. She pushed herself up to a sitting position, though she still didn't meet Natsuki's gaze. "I was just acting the part of the model student, but I didn't truly feel it. It was all an act. I didn't know who the real me was behind the facade, but I tried to find myself, however I could. When Nao challenged me to a duel and tried to seduce me, for a moment, I felt a real thrill."

"A thrill? From _Nao_ trying to seduce you?" Natsuki said. Nao having a crush on Shizuru was already hard enough to believe, but Shizuru feeling something in return was even less credible.

Shizuru shook her head. "It could have been anyone. She was the first person to be so bold with me, and that made me start to think. I think she was being manipulated herself, though. She explained later that a spirit had made a bargain with her. It was particularly powerful, and it would assist Nao with making money in any way possible, if in turn Nao would oblige it from time to time. I believe the duel with me was one such incident, though I can't say for sure whether Nao actually felt anything for me or not.

"But I did feel a thrill. I thought I'd finally found something I could be engaged in, twisted as it was. I don't think I was in the right state of mind when Nao asked me to help her out. I agreed without really thinking about it, and I let her cast a spell to keep the secret between us. I don't blame her, though. I think she was being manipulated even more than I was. She was doing it so that she could help her mother. I was doing it... because it was fun."

"...Fun?" Natsuki said. "It was fun for you to manipulate other girls into surrendering themselves to you? Fun for you to taunt me?"

"I..." Shizuru shook her head. "Nao told me that was what I'd have to write to make sure you'd eventually agree to duel me... I didn't know you then... I would never do that to you now. Please, Natsuki..."

"I don't fucking care," Natsuki said. She gritted her teeth for a minute, trying to keep herself from exploding in anger. "You did it. You should have known that it wouldn't go over well. What excuse do you think there could possibly be for that?"

"...I... I have no excuse," Shizuru said. She looked up at Natsuki, revealing that tears had been running down her face this whole time. Nevertheless, she met Natsuki's gaze. "I thought I could be better, though. I gave it up when I met you... I tried to confess... I... I..." Shizuru closed her eyes and turned her head downward, letting out sobs. "I don't deserve you..."

"...You probably don't," Natsuki said. She turned away from Shizuru, and she began to walk toward the exit from the duelspace. The pain in her chest was becoming too much to ignore. She had to get out before she broke down.

"Are... are you leaving me...?" Shizuru said from behind Natsuki. Her voice was resigned, as if she already knew the answer.

Natsuki paused in her step, trying to find the right words. "I don't know. I don't know if I can forgive this..." Natsuki's voice failed her at this point. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to try to calm herself down. "But this wouldn't hurt so much if I didn't care about you." _I just don't know if it's enough._

X-X-X

**Author's Note:** The official winner of the contest for guessing the Crimson Maiden's identity is... *drumroll*... Dragonmaster352! His/her guess was in the forum, and I'll paste it below:

_1) Nao has a chrush on Yukino (SHOCK) why do i think this? in chapter 3 Mikoto points out that Nao is watching their group and that it started just when Yukino joined them. now i know that alone isn't enough to base something like that on and it may look like it has nothing to do with the actual Crimson Maiden which leads me to number two_

_2) Yukino didn't duel the actual Crimson Maiden it was actually a copy-cat. You guessed it: Nao. stay with me now, as an illusionist Yukino isn't the strongest one of the group yet she was able to land not one but several blows to the "Maiden" who until then only got hit by Mai. that and the suggestion the Maiden has dueled a large number of students, it's logical to assume there must have been other illusionists, perhaps stronger or maybe even smarter than Yukino, that were not able to hit her. that still not being enough to provide conclusive evidence or relevance to all this leads me to number tree_

_3) at the end of chapter 11 Shizuru was very shocked when Haruka confronted her claiming she raped Yukino. WHY? there being little to no OOC-ness in the story, should she not have acted concerned or at least less shocked? BUT. what if she was in fact the "real" Crimson Maiden, would she not be shocked that some one copied her?_

Send me a PM once you've read this, Dragonmaster352, and let me know what you'd like to request as a reward. It can be canon/non-canon for any of my stories (though I may have to choose to make something non-canon), publicly posted or private, tame or smutty, as general or as specific as you'd like. I'll only state a length limit of roughly one chapter's worth of material, though I won't be a stickler for that if I like the idea enough.

I'll be taking a brief break from this fic to work on a birthday fic for a friend, but I'll be back to continue it soon enough. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing!


	22. Fallout

**Author's Note: **My apologies for the wait, but I'm back to this now. I might be posting the birthday fic I mentioned on my LJ sometime soon; I'll post a note here when it's up. Unfortunately, with the recent crackdown on adult fics here, I don't dare post it to this site.

I'll try to keep to a reasonable schedule here until the fic is complete, but I may take a couple breaks (such as to work on Dragonmaster352's request fic).

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Chapter 21:** Fallout

**Rating:** M

X-X-X

Natsuki knocked on Mai's door. She did _not_want to do this right now, but per her earlier agreement with Mai, if she didn't check in with Mai in person outside the duelspace, Mai would bring a faculty member into the mix. Even though Natsuki - and presumable Shizuru as well by this point - had already left the duelspace, she knew that things would only get more difficult if a faculty member were brought in, and Mai could get in a lot of trouble for a false alarm.

As soon as the door opened up enough for her face to be visible, Natsuki said, "I'm fine," and turned to leave.

"Oh no you don't!" Mai said. Natsuki had been expecting Mai to protest when Natsuki left without any explanation, but she wasn't prepared for Mai leaping forward to grab her wrist and physically restrain her from leaving.

"What the hell?" Natsuki said. She turned to glare daggers at Mai. She really wasn't in the mood for this. "I'll explain later. Just fuck off for tonight," she said, trying to shake off Mai's grasp, or possibly stun her enough with the verbal assault that she'd let go.

"Oh, I'm certainly not going to now," Mai said. She met Natsuki's gaze and refused to let go of her friend's wrist. She even backed up and tried to drag Natsuki into her dorm room. "I can't rule out that you're the Maiden using a glamour right now, so I can't let you out of my sight until the timer is up. If you don't want to turn this into a spectacle, you'll come into my room right now."

"Tch!" Natsuki grimaced. "Just try to dispel the glamour. Whatever you need to do so I can get away from you."

"I can't risk being wrong," Mai said. She held Natsuki's gaze for a minute, as if daring the other girl to try to get away. "Are you coming in, or are you going to explain all this to the next person to walk by?"

Natsuki's eye twitched at the thought of explaining this to someone. "Fine," she said, following Mai into her room. She couldn't deny that Mai was right to be a bit concerned, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Once Natsuki was in the room, Mai moved around her and closed the door. Leaning against it, she said, "I have wards set up to warn Yukino and Mikoto if anyone other than me casts a spell in here, so don't think about trying anything. Now, if you really are Natsuki, then tell me: How did your dog, Duran, die?"

"Why the hell are you bringing that up now?" Natsuki said. In the back of her mind, she was trying to think of some way to get back at Mai for this, preferably without breaking any school rules.

"I need you to tell me something only Natsuki would know," Mai said. "I'm sorry, but this is the only private thing about you I really know. I can't rule out that the Maiden might know about, but it's a start."

Natsuki let out a low growl. "He died from injuries in the car accident that killed my mother."

Mai shook her head. "I'm sorry, Natsuki. That's too general... Could be a lucky guess from someone who's heard a bit about your past. Specifics."

"Just fucking try to dispel the glamour," Natsuki said. Mai was already pressing her luck here. Natsuki wasn't going to open up another emotional can of worms tonight, whatever Mai might assume.

Mai let out a sigh. "Fine." She raised an arm and pointed at Natsuki. "Reveal yourself, Juliet Nao Zhang!" she said. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, a magical explosion burst from her finger and threw her back against the door. "Gah... Seriously, Natsuki, this isn't a joyride for me. But I'll go through the entire list of suspects before I risk the possibility that the real Natsuki is stuck in a dueling room, waiting for you to get back and rape her."

Natsuki felt like she'd been punched in the chest. As bad as things were tonight, Mai was doing this for her sake after all. "...Duran overexerted himself saving me from drowning after the accident. You happy?"

Mai was silent for a bit. "No, but I trust you're Natsuki. You can leave if you want... but what happened?"

Natsuki shook her head. "I'll tell you later, alright? I just want to be alone tonight."

"Alright. I'm sorry, Natsuki..." Mai said as she got out of the way to let Natsuki pass.

"It's fine..." Natsuki said. "It's just..." she shook her head. "Later."

X-X-X

"I don't want to talk to you right now," Natsuki said. When she found herself lying in her bed with the sense that someone else was in the room behind her, she'd figured out pretty quickly that she was dreaming again. "Nothing personal... I just can't bear to look at Shizuru right now."

There was a long silence in the room. Eventually, a voice spoke, though it didn't sound like any particular person's voice. It was simply a voice. "...I understand. I wish it didn't come to this, but I suppose there was no avoiding it, given what Shizuru has done. I didn't come here to talk to you, though. We can do that later if you wish, but tonight, I thought that you might be able to use a friend."

A bit curious, Natsuki rolled over so that she could look at Dream Shizuru. Just as her voice had lost all character to it, so too had her body. Her appearance was a blurred out, but in the shape of a human. "You're not...?"

Dream Shizuru - if this truly was her - shook her head. "You don't want to see me as Shizuru right now, and so you don't. Since you don't feel comfortable enough with anyone else, I appear like this. I don't mind, though. I know you aren't angry with me. I just came here to do what I could to help you through this."

"...Thanks," Natsuki said, "but I don't think talking about this is going to do any good tonight. I just need... I don't know what I need..." Natsuki shook her head and let out a sigh. If she were awake, she'd likely be fighting back tears right now, but thankfully that wasn't the case within her dream.

"I did have one idea," Dream Shizuru said, "but it will take a lot out of me. I might not be able to see you again for a while. I suspect you won't want to see me for some time, though, so there's probably little harm."

Natsuki narrowed her eyes. "I don't want you to do that... I... You helped me out a lot today. I can't keep taking and taking from you like this. It's just not fair."

Natsuki couldn't even see Dream Shizuru's mouth, but somehow Natsuki knew that she was smiling. "Trust me, Natsuki. This will help me as well. If one wishes to tie a knot, one more first form a loop. A bit of luck will still be required, but this will certainly make things more hopeful for me."

"A knot...? What do you mean?" Natsuki said.

"I'm afraid it wouldn't be fair to tell you that quite yet," Dream Shizuru said. "I've spoken enough for now. I'll be leaving, but I hope you find my replacement to be more than adequate."

"Huh? Wait!" Natsuki said, but Dream Shizuru had already begun to fade from sight. A new, shorter spirit began to coalesce in her place. It took Natsuki some time to figure out just what she was looking at, but her eyes opened wide when the spirit fully coalesced. He looked just as the same as Natsuki remembered him, though now that she'd grown up, he seemed a lot smaller. In a soft voice, Natsuki said, "D-Duran?"

The dog looked up at Natsuki and immediately let out a bark and began to wag his tail. He bounded over to her and jumped up onto the bed, lying down next to her and pressing himself up against her body.

"Duran... I... Thank you," Natsuki said. She actually was beginning to feel her eyes well up with tears, but she wasn't fighting it. She wrapped her arms around her dog and held him tightly. "I've missed you... I'm sorry, boy. I've only been using to fight and for practice... never just to play. I promise, I'll make it up to you, however I can."

Duran's tail thudded against Natsuki's leg. He might not have fully understood Natsuki, but her words had certainly seemed to make him happy.

X-X-X

"I really don't deserve you right now," Shizuru said, turning away from the figure of Natsuki that had appeared within her dreams, coming out from behind a sakura tree. "I just need to be alone right now."

Despite her request, Shizuru heard light footsteps approach her. "You deserve me no less now than you ever did. Both other Shizurus I've known have had their problems to work through, and you're no different in that regard. I didn't abandon you when you told me about your past actions, and I certainly won't abandon you now."

Shizuru tried to think of something to say to this, but nothing was coming to her. Eventually, she felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. She brought her own hand up and placed it on top of Dream Natsuki's hand, silently thanking her. After a while, she said, "I owe you a lot. If I didn't have you to talk with about all of this... I really think I might have snapped, or broken things off with Natsuki for fear of hurting her." Shizuru's eyes closed as she thought about this last point. "But I did hurt her, didn't I? Perhaps I shouldn't have gotten to know her. I should have left it at that one meeting in the gardens... Beyond that, it was just unfair to her."

"No, it wasn't," Dream Natsuki said. She moved around in front of Shizuru and looked into her eyes. "I was able to watch as the first Natsuki I knew grew old. She and her Shizuru had some rough times - including some very bad times at the beginning - but as she got older, the only times Natsuki really remembered were the good ones. The bad times lost their sting, while the good times retained their warmth. It wasn't just with Shizuru or her family. Even with people she lost contact with, it was the good times that she remembered. So, even if things don't work out here, you can trust me that in time, Natsuki will appreciate the good times you gave her. If you're lucky, she'll come to that realization soon enough that you two can still patch things up."

Shizuru couldn't help but let a smile cross her face. "Thank you. I don't know if I dare to hope for that... but I do thank you." Dream Natsuki smiled back at her, but a thought occurred to Shizuru. "Speaking of thanking you... In the duel with Natsuki, when I summoned Kiyohime... That was you, wasn't it?"

Dream Natsuki's smile widened. "Guilty as charged. Although I admit, I wasn't expecting you to even be able to summon another Child. I was hoping that would end the battle right there."

"That wasn't me," Shizuru said, shaking her head. "The Maiden took over for that. I've never even heard of that Child before. But still... thank you."

X-X-X

By now, Mashiro recognized all the signs of one of her "special" dreams. The biggest clue was that she knew for a fact that she was dreaming. Normal dreams always seemed to masquerade as reality, but these ones always came with the instinctive knowledge that it was all a dream. That didn't mean it wasn't real, however. Mashiro's double had given Mashiro a few bits of information that she was later able to confirm when she woke up. Most of the information was trivial facts about ancient Zipang, which was easy enough to confirm by checking through the history books kept in the castle. That had made Mashiro trust that her double was real, and not just a figment of her imagination. What it hadn't done, however, was make her take the double seriously. That hadn't happened until Mashiro had been told what she might see in the night sky. There was just no way to ignore something like that, especially now that it had begun to grow bigger by the day.

"I'm glad you came," Mashiro said, even though she hadn't caught side of her double yet. As soon as she spoke, she caught a flash of pink out of the corner of her eye. She turned to face her double, and she nodded her head politely. "To be honest, I'm beginning to worry about the red star."

"I am as well," Mashiro's double said. "If the rules of old were to apply today, it should have stopped its descent some time ago. The fact that it has not done so is worrying indeed. I have a theory about why this may be, but I can think of no way to test it. That is, I can think of no way to test my theory that would not involve a great deal of assistance, and I'm sure you would prefer to minimize the number of people involved in this matter."

"That probably is a good idea," Mashiro said. "But, what is this theory of yours?"

Mashiro's double took a seat, despite the fact that a chair hadn't been behind her until this moment. "You remember about the dark force I told you about, the Obsidian Lord? It's my theory that the red star is directly under the Obsidian Lord's control. It may be that the star will only ascend back to the heavens when the Obsidian Lord wills it. In my world, this always happened after eleven souls were sacrificed to the Obsidian Lord, but not immediately afterward. However, things are quite different here, especially this time. I do not even know who might have been chosen as the Obsidian Prince, and so I know of no way to communicate with them.

"This brings me to the reason I've come to visit you tonight," Mashiro's double said. "It is impossible for me to communicate with the Obsidian Lord while he wishes to evade me. However, it may not be impossible for a spirit native to this world to this. They would need to be particularly powerful, however. From what I can gather about this world from your memories, I suspect that Garderobe's Shinso might be powered by such a spirit. I cannot communicate with her myself, but I believe that Professor Steinberg will be able to do so."

Mashiro let out a sigh. Her meeting with Yukariko hadn't gone well at all. Yukariko was convinced that Mashiro was either crazy or possessed by a malevolent spirit. When Mashiro had allowed her to attempt to exorcize any spirit from her and Yukariko had failed, she only became convinced that Mashiro wasn't in her right mind. This hadn't caused Sakomizu to worry any less about Mashiro when he heard this verdict, but for some reason, he did stop pressuring Mashiro to tell him what was really wrong.

"I don't know if I'll be able to convince her of all this," Mashiro said. "She didn't believe anything I told her last time."

"She is not the one you need to convince, however," Mashiro's double said. "I have been thinking about this matter, and the solution is simple, at least in principle. You must convince the Regent Sakomizu Cardinal that this is necessary, and he will then be able to convince Professor Steinberg to take action. He may not be easy to convince, but he is a reasonable man. I am sure that he can be convinced of the truth."

X-X-X

Mai's eyes opened. She wasn't taking any chances with her dreams, although that came with the drawback that it seemed to be cutting in on her sleep. According to the clock, she'd only been asleep for around an hour, though she only remembered her dream lasting for a couple minutes. In her dream, Nao had been bound and gagged in front of Mai, naked except for the ropes tied around her body. She'd glared defiantly at Mai, who had moved to untie her. A voice asked Mai if she was sure she wanted to do that, and that was when Mai figured out what was happening. She'd forced herself to wake up to prevent the Maiden from doing anything at all to influence her.

Mai rolled over onto her side and let out a sigh. This really shouldn't have been happening. Natsuki had beaten the Maiden - at least, so Mai assumed. So why was she still coming after Mai? _...Her challenge to me._The Maiden's challenge to Mai was still officially open. She must have been trying to tempt Mai into accepting it, perhaps to boost her ego after the loss. Mai was in no mood to humor her, however. She pushed herself out of bed and turned the lights on. After giving her eyes time to adjust to the light, she headed to her desk and searched it for the message she'd gotten from the Maiden.

Once she found it, Mai grabbed a pen, turned the message over, and scribbled out a quick reply:

_Challenge declined, now and forever. No leaving it open, no challenging me again. Forget it. And I'll be telling a friend to institutionalize me if I even consider accepting a challenge from you in the future, so don't think you can convince me otherwise. It's not happening, so let me rest in peace._

Mai cast a quick spell to send the message as a reply, then got up from the chair and turned off the lights again. Hopefully she'd be able to sleep undisturbed this time.

X-X-X

Mai's eyes opened up again. She looked over at the clock. Another hour of sleep. "Ugh..." Mai closed her eyes and let out a groan. She'd taken the time to explain to the Maiden that she was refusing any challenge, and then she'd woken herself up before the Maiden could even reply. Hopefully this time she'd be able to get some sleep.

X-X-X

_"Do you truly think this is over, Mai?" a voice said. "And did you truly think my goal was to get you to accept my challenge to duel? Oh no. I have something special in mind for you. You will-"_

X-X-X

Mai's eyes snapped open. That was it, she wasn't even going to try to get back to sleep tonight. She forced herself to roll out of bed so she could turn the lights on again. She just had to wait until morning, and then she could talk to Professor Steinberg about an exorcism.

_Then again... perhaps Shiho's up..._


	23. Land of the Crimson Sun

**Author's Note:** My apologies for the wait on this chapter. This arc of the fic wasn't planned out as much, so it's taking me a bit longer to figure out where I want to go with things.

Also, I've posted a new fic on my LJ now (see link in my profile), which I'd originally written for a friend's birthday. It's rather explicit, so I'll probably have to do some editing before I'll be able to post it here.

X-X-X

**Title:** The Crimson Maiden

**Rating:** M

**Chapter 22:** Land of the Crimson Sun

X-X-X

Akane had the strange feeling that she'd been up all night, which, she supposed, was true in a sense. She'd tried to nap on the flight to Zipang, but her body was convinced that it was the middle of the day, and so she hadn't had much luck. But now that she was in Zipang, and it was the middle of the day here, her body was convinced that it was the middle of the night, and was starting to feel fatigue setting in.

When Akane, Midori, and Lena got onto the train for the second phase of their trip, Akane soon found herself dozing off in her seat, and her mind began to wander. She was on another continent for the first time in her life, but she didn't have much of a chance to relish it. She'd probably be going to bed as soon as possible tonight, after meeting with Shiro, Youko, and Kazuya at Settsu University. And then they'd be off traveling again tomorrow, with little time in the morning to do anything before they got to Fuuka. From what Akane had heard, there weren't many accommodations anywhere near Fuuka Gakuen, so they'd have to commute for over hour each way. They'd have a bit of free time in evenings, but there wasn't much in the region that was all that interesting aside from Fuuka Gakuen itself.

It was a bit of a shame that Akane wouldn't get to see much of the real Zipang, but she was privileged to be able to be one of the first few people in centuries to see the inside of Fuuka Gakuen. That, and she'd finally get to meet Kazuya in person...

X-X-X

A loud clap woke Akane up with a start. Her mind raced to catch up with where she was and what she was doing, but Midori had already begun speaking. "Only five minutes to get there. I figured you'd need the time to fully wake up. Though I must say, your dreams certainly must have been quite nice. I didn't interrupt anything juicy, did I?"

"Huh? Ah, no!" Akane said, turning her head away from Midori. Her dreams were already starting to fade from her memory, but she could remember enough to know that they certainly weren't anything that Midori would consider "juicy." They were nice, though.

"Hmm," Midori said. It didn't sound like she fully believed Akane. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I still owe you one, so I'll make sure this visit is plenty juicy for you in its own right."

Akane's eyes widened, and she turned back to Midori in a panic. She'd already strained things between herself and Kazuya quite a bit when she'd agreed to participate in Midori's game. If Midori was that oblivious to what Kazuya was looking for, she couldn't possibly be any help. "No!" she said, then quickly lowered her voice so they didn't attract too much attention. "Um, I mean... you don't need to. Please."

Midori furrowed her brow at Akane. "Oh come on... I nearly got you in trouble with Professor Sayers. I owe you one. If you don't let me pay you back like this, then at least tell me what I can do for you."

"Just... don't embarrass me," Akane said. "If you must flirt with Youko, could you at least try to keep it a _bit_tame while the rest of us are around?"

Midori looked up as she tought about this, then back at Akane. "How tame is 'a bit'?"

Akane glared at Midori, then let out a sigh. "Well, first of all, keep your clothes on."

Midori blinked, her face actually showing surprise at this. "Why would I...? Wait," she turned away from Akane and stared at the seat in front of her and shook her head. "Er... well, just in front of you and Kazuya is _mostly_private..."

"No!" Akane said, managing to keep her voice down this time. "It's not. Anytime you and I are in the same room, it counts as public. Is that so hard for you to understand?"

"No..." Midori said. She kept her gaze glued to the seat in front of her, as if she was still trying to figure something else. "I think that's a given... Um," Midori turned back to Akane and gave her a small smile. "I'm sorry about dragging you into that thing between me and Youko. I can't explain why I did it, but I shouldn't have done so."

"Oh," Akane said. "Well, thanks, I gue-"

Akane was cut off as a series of tones came out from the speakers above her and Midori. Akane couldn't speak Zipango, but she was pretty sure that it was saying that they'd arrived at Settsu Station.

X-X-X

Getting to Settsu University was easy enough, but getting past security was another matter. Midori had memorized a number of Zipango phrases while she was on the train, and she insisted on using them to communicate with the guard. Lena had let out a sigh and allowed Midori to take point, and Akane had found herself searching through her Zipango phrasebook to try to figure out what the guard was saying to Midori. As far as Akane could tell, Midori's pronunciation must have been horrible, as everything the guard said seemed to be some variation on "Could you repeat that?"

Eventually, the guard himself let out a sigh. "Could we just do this in Lutetian? he said. He had a bit of an accent, but he seemed to have no trouble at all with the language. Midori stood stunned in front of him while Lena approached his desk.

"This is an international university, Midori," Lena said. "Lutetian is the working language here. Far more people speak it than... whatever you were speaking."

Midori furrowed her brow and grumbled at this while Lena explained to the guard who they were there to meet. It wasn't long before they'd signed in and been given their visitor's passes. Midori was cowed a bit after this, but she hadn't technically been reprimanded, and so she'd bounced back to herself by the time they'd reached the room Shiro had booked for them. Akane found herself wondering just how Midori managed to still be so lively and alert. As far as she knew, Midori hadn't slept a wink on the flight or train ride - though of course, she could have done so while Akane was asleep - and yet she seemed to be showing no signs of fatigue, while Akane was fighting to keep from letting out a conspicuous yawn.

The door to the conference room was open when they arrived, so Midori strolled right in, barely managing to avoid crashing into Shiro as he approached the door. Lena shot Midori a warning glance, but her attention quickly turned to her husband. She smiled at him, and without a word, the two of them shared a quick embrace. "Please excuse Midori," Lena said. After a glance into the room, she continued, "Are we early?" Akane shifted to the side so she could peek into the room as well. Drinks and snacks were set up for them, but neither Youko nor Kazuya was present yet.

"Oh no," Shiro said, shaking his head. "Kazuya just left to retrieve the pot of coffee he brewed for us, and I suspect Youko has simply lost track of time. You can have a seat, and I'll go and fetch her."

As Shiro left the room, Akane and Lena took a seat, while Midori positioned herself along the wall near the door. It wasn't hard to figure out what she was planning to do. Akane raised an eyebrow at Midori and said, "You'd better make sure you don't ambush Professor Shiro by mistake," she said, glancing briefly at Lena.

Midori snorted at this. "Do you really think I'd do something as cowardly as ambush Youko?" she said, crossing her arms and looking away from the door. "Surprising her without attacking, on the other hand, isn't dishonorable in the slightest."

Akane rolled her eyes at this. At the very least, Midori tended to be a fair bit more competent when she was in her "warrior mode," as Akane had taken to calling it. She wasn't any more attached to reality than normal, but at least she wasn't quite as embarrassing.

Akane nearly jumped out of her seat as she caught sight of a familiar boy through the doorway, but she managed to at least stand up without stumbling too much. "Kazuya!" she called out as she ran toward him, only holding herself back from immediately hugging him through fear that she might cause him to spill the pot of coffee he was carrying.

Out of the corner of her eye, Akane caught sight of Midori chuckling at her behavior, but Akane resolutely ignored this.

X-X-X

Midori smirked at Akane's behavior. Akane had spent the whole day acting like Midori was embarrassing her, but as soon as a boy she liked entered the room, she acted like an excited puppy. She might as well have had an actual tail wagging behind her, for how poor a job she was doing at hiding her exuberance.

Come to think of it... When Akane had worn her battle robe at her graduation battle the prior year, hadn't she worn a pair of dog ears as an accessory? Or perhaps they were supposed to be cat ears. Judging by her behavior now, the dog allusion seemed much more likely, but perhaps Akane didn't realize that about herself.

"Puppy love is quite adorable, isn't it?" came Youko's voice from behind Midori.

Midori was barely able to keep herself from jumping in place, but did she jerk quite visibly. She turned around and focused on Youko. "How- how did you- I was watching the door!" she said.

Youko raised an eyebrow at Midori. She turned to the side and pointed behind her. "There are two doors to this room, Midori," she said.

"Oh," Midori said, noticing the other door for the first time. "I... probably should have noticed that." She narrowed her eyes at Youko. "Fine. You win this round, but I will get my revenge."

Youko rolled her eyes, but she did smile at this. "We can deal with that later," she said. She took Midori's hand within her own and gave it a light squeeze. "It's good to see you in person after all this time, Midori."

"Oh really?" Midori said. "We wait all this time, and seeing me is all you care about. You hurt a girl's feelings..."

"I would have thought you'd learned your lesson," Youko said. "We are in public after all."

"Hrmph. Yeah... They are kind of nice people, aren't they?" Midori said. "And I did promise Akane to be on my best behavior today."

Youko nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. Use this opportunity to get to know Kazuya and Shiro a bit better, and then tonight, if you've been good, I may just treat you to dinner." Youko released Midori's hand. She smiled at Midori one more time as she headed off to greet Lena.

X-X-X

"You really don't need to worry, Takumi-sama," Akira said. "Sachiko-san is more than competent, and there hasn't been a threat against the royal family since you were born. I assure you, even in my absence, there is no possibility that harm might come to you. I will stake my life on Sachiko-san's skill." _More than that, I would stake your life on it,_Akira silently added. It didn't seem proper to say that aloud, though.

"Hmm?" Takumi said. He turned from his desk and looked up at Akira in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You're worried," Akira said. The prince might have been good at keeping a stoic expression in public, but in private, it didn't even take the skills of a kunoichi to be able to read his expressions. "You don't need to be. I'm sure you'll be fine."

This didn't seem to reassure Takumi. His expression softened, and he said, "I'm not worried about myself, Akira-kun. You're the one heading into possible danger. I know Fuuka is supposed to be relatively safe now, but I just want to make sure you're prepared for anything that might happen there."

Akira raised her eyebrows, almost imperceptibly. "Your Highness need not be concerned for my safety. It is my job to face danger in your stead, Takumi-sama, and I have already faced risks much greater than this for your sake without regret. I can imagine no greater purpose for my life."

"No... I know," Takumi said. He smiled softly at Akira. "I should apologize. I'm allowing other factors to cloud my judgment." Takumi pushed his chair out and stood up. After straightening out his clothes, he turned to Akira. "Akira-kun," he said. "If I were to ask something of you which made you uncomfortable, would you tell me?"

Akira narrowed her eyes. "I could do so if you wish me to, Your Highness."

"Please," Takumi said. "Particularly for this next request. You do not need to answer if you do not wish to, but I feel I must ask. I recently became aware that Lord Morihiro Konoe had proposed that his son be wed to you, but you had declined - rather vehemently, if I am to believe Konoe-san." Takumi gave a soft smile and looked away from Akira. "I confess that I find this matter most baffling. I suppose it is a sign of the changing times that Konoe-san would be looking for a suitor on the basis of merit rather than blood, but I must ask you: What made you so opposed to this arrangement?"

Akira had been waiting for this question. The Konoe family was second only to the royal family itself in prestige. Traditionally, members of the imperial family could only marry those with noble blood, and so marrying into a family such as the Konoe was the highest a commoner such as Akira could ever climb up the social ladder. It granted her prestige, the ability to spend the rest of her life without working, and the remote possibility - which Konoe-sama had strongly hinted at nevertheless - that she might one day mother the wife of an emperor. Even a few decades ago, the Konoe family would never have considered a marriage to a commoner, but opening international relations had led to efforts within Zipang to appear a bit less rigid in their ways. Even so, the only reason Konoe-sama would consider a commoner such as Akira as a suitor was because she was the bodyguard to the future emperor, and thus would have a great amount of influence on him, should she choose to exercise it.

That was the catch. Akira would be granted de facto nobility, but only if she were to betray her friendship with Takumi to advance the goals of the Konoe family. She'd known that word of this refusal would soon get to Takumi, and so she'd readied an answer for when she was asked this question. She would explain that she did not wish to be manipulated, and that the proposal came with strings attached which she could not abide.

Akira opened her mouth to explain, but a lump caught in her throat. She swallowed it and tried to figure out why her body was disobeying her at this moment. It should have been simple. She'd prepared for this. But with Takumi standing in front of Akira, the speech she'd prepared seemed disingenuous. Every word she'd prepared was true, but it didn't touch upon the true reason she'd objected to the marriage.

"I..." Akira said, forcing the words out, "...could not bear to leave his Highness."

X-X-X

Midori ended up spending most of the meeting getting to know Kazuya and Akane. She and Youko were going to talk later, and Shiro... "It's kind of an Aswad thing," Midori explained to Akane and Kazuya, glancing briefly over at Shiro. "We both know that any news from home is going to be more bad than good. And if we got to talking, it would be hard to avoid talking about some of the people that we both know. For instance... Shiro's younger brother, and my friend, Reito. Hard to avoid him, and the fact that just a few months ago, the plague got to the point where he had to get a completely cybernetic body. And he's far from the only one..." Midori shook her head. "Anyway. It's a survival tactic. No point dwelling on things we can't change."

"But you can change it," Akane said. Midori looked over at her in confusion, and Akane continued. "Isn't that why you're in Garderobe in the first place?"

"Heh... In theory," Midori said. She leaned back in her seat and let out a sigh. "It's not like I'm the slightest bit good at mediation. And the Aswad haven't been able to find another girl with even a trace of magical power since I got into Garderobe. So that idea's a bust, and the faculty at Garderobe is only grudgingly researching the plague."

"They aren't the only ones working on it, though," Kazuya said. "Youko has her own theories on it. She just hasn't been able to get any funding for it to carry out tests. Well, unless you count this expedition, that is."

Midori blinked at Kazuya. "This expedition? What do you mean?"

"Ah, well, she was able to finally get some tools she needs," Kazuya said. "A lot of magic-detecting and analyzing equipment. It'll help her figure out what's going on with magic near Fuuka, and perhaps detect any dangerous areas before we get into trouble. But Youko thinks the plague is magical in nature, so she's planning to use them on Professor Shiro as well, to see if she can figure out something about it. And well... I'd assume you as well, if you agree to it."

"...Oh," Midori said. She glanced over at Youko, wondering if that might have something to do with the interest Youko had shown in her. As she was looking at Youko, Youko happened to glance over at Midori, and the smile she gave erased all doubts from Midori's mind and caused a brief flurry of excitement in her stomach. Midori coughed and looked away from Youko, trying to get back to the conversation at hand. "Well... I'm not really sure I'd be that helpful. As far as I know, I'm not infected with the plague for some reason."

"Really?" Kazuya said. "I thought all Aswad had it. Some are better than others, of course - Professor Shiro's gotten off pretty lucky so far, for instance - but I've never heard of someone immune to it. Were both of your parents Aswad?"

Midori nodded. "They are. It might just be slow to develop in me. I can't really say."

"Huh," Kazuya said. He was silent for a moment, his eyes looking over at Youko. "You might want to check with Youko anyway. It might just be some random mutation you have that makes you immune, but even if that is the case, it would at least be useful to know."

"Heh..." Midori. That was just what she needed. If the tribe found out that she was immune for some genetic reason, Midori was sure to be enveloped with men wanting to father her children, "for the good of the tribe's future." If they had their way, she'd be a professional mother for the rest of her life. Midori shook her head, and she stood up from the table. "I think you're right. Youko and I should definitely talk." _Though genetic testing is going to be the furthest thing from my mind, if I have any say in the matter._


End file.
